The Golgi staining method is a technique for staining nervous tissue first pioneered by Camillo Golgi in the late 1800's. This staining technique was most predominantly used by Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal, resulting in the development of "The Neuron Doctrine." The magic of the Golgi stain isn't in what tissue is stained, but the amount of tissue which is left untouched. The nature of nervous tissue is incredibly packed with millions of neurons. Should one stain all of the neurons, the result would be an utterly useless array black. By an unknown mechanism in the Golgi stain, a random amount of cells are stained, leaving the rest of the tissue unscathed. The result permits for the analysis of various cell bodies and axons. In various other staining techniques, the dendrites and axons are too transparent and slim for viewing. Golgi stains are extremely easy to recognize due to their rich orange-yellow hue which results from the composition of staining chemicals and amber used while cover slipping. .......................................... The stains represented on this page were conducted using the following proportions:
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