From publication in fascicules, 1897-1904 (vol. 1 in 3 pts., vol. 2 in 4 pts.) This monumental work set out the cytological and histological foundations of modern neurology. Ramón y Cajal’s research confirmed the neuron doctrine; his classification of neurons provided a histological basis for cerebral localization. His descriptions of the cerebral cortex are still the most authoritative. Illustrated from Cajal’s own drawings. Revised and enlarged French translation, 2 vols., Paris, 1909-10. The French translation was translated into English by Neely Swanson and Larry W. Swanson as Histology of the nervous system in man and vertebrates. 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

In 1906 Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi "for their work on the structure of the nervous system."