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Golgi Stained Neurons:  Golgi stain has been a remarkable tool for neuroanatomists for this entire century.  It is unusual among stains in that it coats the outside of a cell rather than identifying a chemical component within the cell.  It also differs from most stains in that it coats only an occasional neuron, leaving nearby cells untouched.  This last peculiarity is what makes golgi stains so valuable.  It allows the student to see the three dimensional shape of several, interconnected, neurons.  Moreover, it allows one to see the connections of axons to dendrites (or somae).  If golgi stain affected every neuron, all that would be seen is a mass of black.  For many years, this was the best means of deciphering neuron complexity.

Giant (or Alpha) Motor Neurons:  The ventral gray (ramus) of the spinal cord contains a mix of glial cells,  interneurons (association neurons), and motor neurons.  Motor neurons communicate with body organs (a motor unit of a muscle, in this instance) through bioelectric impulses (action potentials) that signal the distal tip of each neuron to release a chemical transmitter substance.  For giant motor neurons, this substance is acetylcholine (ACh).  Giant motor neurons receive this name because their cell bodies (somae) are so much larger than other neurons of the ventral gray.  They can be seen through the typical low power of a compound microscope.  In the picture above, the nucleus and nissl bodies can be distinguished within the cell body.