Abstract
The trajectory of histology at the cusp of the twentieth century in Portugal and Spain is investigated to draw a parallel between the contributions of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Marck Athias, both of whom were instrumental in the development of experimental medicine in the Iberian Peninsula and recognized as pillars of a new European scientific mindset at the dawn of the twentieth century. In this case study we reflect on the vicissitudes of the construction of science in the “periphery” of Europe, in the context of the historiographical category of center-periphery developed by STEP (Science and Technology in the European Periphery), contrasting the reality in Iberia with the model of German science in the period under study.
neuron theory; Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934); Marck Athias (1875-1946); history of Iberian medicine