For my first assignment, I decided to recreate an image from Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s Textura Del Sistema Nervioso del Hombre y de los Vertebrados. It is a diagram of two different kinds of ganglia, one from a fish and one from a cat. The image also delineates the direction of information passage through the nerve fiber. I chose this drawing because I am studying the dorsal root ganglion in my own research. Our lab looks at the causes of chronic pain after injury. Our major hypothesis is that dorsal root ganglia neurons are being altered in some way to produce a persistent pain signal. Therefore, I wanted to study their structure from the viewpoint of a microscope slide, which I have never done before.
Ramon y Cajal’s original diagram is based on his microscopic observations of sections of animal tissue, in this case stained with a silver nitrate dye developed by his great rival, Camilo Golgi. He used pen and ink on paper, likely a fountain pen due to its widespread prevalence around 1899, the time of publication. Though I do not have a fountain pen, I do have modern implements like a mechanical pencil, wooden pencil, and ballpoint pen. I will use these tools to replicate his diagrams to the best of my ability. Of course, the final product will differ due to their particular characteristics. For example, graphite pencils produce a lighter mark than ink. Ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils produce lines of uniform thickness, unlike a fountain pen. I plan to use these three alternatives in each of my three field note drawings.
Our modern expectation of anatomical diagrams might be for them to include color. Of course, modern laser color printing did not exist at the time. Indeed, the level of sophistication of Cajal’s black and white illustrations were probably exceptional enough to contemporaries, since he was drawing many of these microscopic structures for the first time. The widespread availability of microscopes and color printing these days has raised our expectations.
FIELD NOTE 1 OF 3
Date: Feb 10, 2022
People Involved: Myself
Location: Sid Rich Computer Lab
Reconstruction conditions:
I like to work at New Sid Rich College, because it is one of the best lit colleges at night. I don’t need to strain my eyes to see details. The temperature is probably around 72 F. The main sounds I hear are the typing of other students working on midterm projects.
Time and duration of reconstruction:
8:20 pm to 8:50 pm. About half an hour.
Equipment and tools used:
Right Hand, Wooden Pencil, Printer paper, Samsung phone with camera, Table, Laptop to display image
Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
My fingers got moist pretty fast as I held down the printer paper. It caused the paper to slightly warp under my left hand. I like the sound of pencil on paper, so it was quite therapeutic to be drawing these ganglia by hand. It felt very relaxing after a long shift at the hospital.
Prior knowledge that you have:
I perform dorsal root ganglion isolations every week in lab, with the goal of dissociating nociceptor cell bodies for culture and experimentation. Therefore, I am accustomed to 2 distinct views: 1) of the intact and unstained dorsal root ganglion sheathed in connective tissue 2) of the individual cells after culturing them overnight.
Reflection on your practice:
I decided to freehand my first attempt at reproducing this image. It’s been a very long time since I seriously drew anything. I proceeded in a stepwise fashion. First, I outlined the fish and cat ganglia. Then, I drew the cell bodies, followed by the dendritic/axonal processes. I drew from left to right, since I am right-handed. I feel like it turned out ok, but that pencil was likely not the best choice for creating areas of uniform darkness, such as those found in Ramon’s drawings. I’d like to spice it up by next using my left hand to draw.
Photos/video documenting process:
Questions that arise:
Why is it that most people in the world are right-handed?
Do any left-hand dominant societies exist?
FIELD NOTE 2 OF 3
Date: Feb 10, 2022
People Involved: Myself
Location: Sid College Computer Lab
Reconstruction conditions:
Same as before. There are less people now than there earlier, from 8 down to 5 people in this room.
Time and duration of reconstruction:
9:10 to 9:40 pm. Half an hour.
Equipment and tools used:
Left hand, Mechanical pencil, Printer paper, Samsung phone with camera, Table, Laptop to display image
Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
Drawing left-handed was much more challenging than drawing right-handed. My left hand jerked around a lot more than my right hand did. This didn’t pose an issue when I was drawing lines, but coloring in the cell bodies was difficult because my hand often strayed beyond the circle I had defined earlier. It was also more challenging to write out the text, including the stamp and the letter labels.
Prior knowledge that you have:
I’m aware that the dominant theory of neural networks is the neuron doctrine, which holds that individual cells make up the nervous system rather than a diffuse reticular network. Based on this idea, I chose to recreate he drawing in a different order than previously. Last time I did cell bodies, then axonal/dendritic processes. This time I did each neuron one at a time.
Reflection on your practice:
I was surprised that I finished the drawing in a similar period of time with my left hand as I had with my right hand. I found that I had pressed more lightly than I had with my right hand, so that even using a mechanical pencil (which would usually produce a darker line) produced lighter lines. I feel like the quality was similar, except that the cell bodies were not colored as consistently. I think it’s time to take another risk and try pen this time, a medium that cannot be erased easily.
Photos/video documenting process:
Questions that arise:
Does defaulting to the neuronal doctrine affect the way that we represent neurons?
Why did so many people agree with Golgi’s reticular theory during its heyday?
FIELD NOTE 3 OF 3
Date: Feb 10, 2022
People Involved: Myself
Location: Sid College Computer Lab
Reconstruction conditions:
I’m feeling a bit more tired than I was when I began drawing. The temperature and lighting and number of people in the vicinity remain the same as during my second reconstruction.
Time and duration of reconstruction:
10:00-10:30 pm.
Equipment and tools used:
Right Hand, Blue Pen, Printer paper, Samsung phone with camera, Table, Laptop to display image
Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
The ink smears a bit when I place my hand over the drawing, so I need to use some tissue to separate my hand and the paper. The pen slides much more easily over the paper than the pencil. I feel more comfortable drawing with my right hand than I did with my left.
Prior knowledge that you have:
Pencil, both wooden and mechanical, does not produce strokes of a consistent shade. In contrast, my pen creates a uniform line. However, it does not have the same versatility of stroke width that I see in Ramon’s drawings. Since he drew his histological studies at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it’s unlikely that he used a ballpoint pen. It’s much more likely that he used a fountain pen, which allows for variable stroke widths.
Reflection on your practice:
I think this is my best reproduction yet. I feel like after drawing the first two times, I have a better understanding of the dimensions and relative positions of various elements. This means that, despite using a similar amount of time to draw, I can capture greater detail. Of course, I will need to get (and learn how to use) a fountain pen to truly recreate the non-uniform strokes that Ramon used in his illustration of neuronal processes.
Photos/video documenting process:
Questions that arise:
Dogma can be the enemy of progress, yet long-term observation often yields deep insights. Is it better for a scientist to approach a question with fresh eyes, or long years of experience?
Does the answer to this question depend upon the field of study?