Eccles developed the technique of extracellular (and later, intracellular) fine glass microelectrode recording. He theorized that there were two kinds of neurons; excitatory and inhibitory. All of his work on nerve cells was summarized in this book. For this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize (with Hodgkin and Huxley) in 1963. The Physiology of Nerves was first given as a series of Herter lectures at The John Hopkins School of Medicine in October 1955. The lectures were revised and expanded for this publication by the author.