Must Read: The History of the Neuron Doctrine

The Neurophilosopher has a fabulous long post on the discovery of the neuron as the fundamental unit of the nervous system.

I would note when you get to the part about Ramon y Cajal that his picture of the neurons in a chick cerebellum formed the red banner for this site, and a picture of him is part of the green banner. He is my favorite neuroscientist. (For those of you who haven't noticed if you keep reloading the site you get a random banner. There are six.)