GOLGI, CAMILLO. - B. at Corteno (Brescia) on 7 July 1844, d. at Pavia on 21 Jan. 1926. A pupil of Bizzozero. He was professor of histology and general pathology at the University of Pavia. He employed a particular method of his own (chrome-silver staining), by which he discovered multipolar nerve cells and made possible histological investigation for knowledge of the structure of nervous tissue; these researches earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1906.
He was the first accurately to describe the development of the malaria parasite in man, finding a relationship between the developmental cycle of the plasmodium and the curves of fever temperature; he indicated the difference between pernicious malaria and tertian and quartan intermittent fevers, and specified their causes. He never addressed the religious problem and maintained that science has nothing, and will never have anything, to say on the matter.
His writings are collected in Opera omnia (Milan 1903).