Golgi

“When he began to investigate fine structure with silver straining, he was not alone in these views. But as more and more data arrived from a variety of laboratories in different disciplines, belief in the reticulum theory began to weaken. Golgi’s own discovery of axonal branching had so validated the reticulum for him – a position solidified by his misunderstanding the receiving function of dendrites – that he began to discount the findings of others. . . . He was intellectually prepared to find network because he so fervently wished to believe in the holistic nature of cortical function – an idea already firmly denied by Virchow . . .” (Rapport, 115-116). . . . By the time he began to produce his own original research with the silver stain [1873-74], a commitment to the network theory obstructed Golgi’s perspective on how the brain was organized. Sidetracked by confusion over the function of dendrites and the meaning of terminal axonal branching, he was never able to broaden his view (118).