Golgi’s contribution to medicine

Abstract The historical analysis of Golgi’s research work reveals that his contribution to the progress of science is not confined to neurosciences and to cellular biology. In fact, Golgi was a passionate and a skillful student of medical problems, in particular of those posed by infectious diseases. Golgi approached these problems with a rigorous method of observation and experimentation with the aim of understanding the genesis of the symptoms and their significance for the progress of the disease. His fundamental contribution to medicine is to be found in his researches on malaria, in which he clarified the biological cycle of the parasite within the blood cells, and discovered the relation between the biological cycle of the parasite and the onset of the fever, thus providing the basis for therapy.