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.)
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