Author: MÜLLER, JOH.
Title: Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und Thiere nebst einem Versuch ueber die Bewegungen der Augen und ueber den menschlichen Blick. Mit 8 Kupfertafeln.
Description: Leipzig, bei C. Cnobloch, 1826. 8vo. W. 1 fold. table and 8 engr. folding pls. (plate V and VIII w. added handcol.; some scattered foxing.). Sturdy modern full brown mor., spine gilt. (XXXII, 462, II (errata, impr.). (All edges red; some scattered foxing; Signature in ink on titlepage: 'Donders', top of first letter cut by binder's knife). DSB IX, p. 567 - 574: 'In 1826 Müller published an extensive work that attracted the attention of the scientific world ... The book, in nine parts, ... opened with his inaugural lecture, "Von dem Bedürfniss der Physiologie nach einer philosophischen Naturbetrachtung", ... The succeeding sections offered a wealth of new findings on human and animal vision, brilliant investigations into the compound eyes of insects and crabs, and truly perceptive analyses of human sight. Moreover the book recorded the young physiologist's most important achievement, the discovery that each sensory system responds to various stimuli only in a fixed, characteristic way - ...': G&M, 1257 and 1495: 'Includes Müller's law of specific nerve energies.'... 'Includes (p. 73) his explanation of the colour sensations produced by pressure upon the retina.': Becker Coll., 267: 'Written at the age of only 25, this is one of Müller's earliest and most important publications. ... Polyak (Vertebrate visual system) cites Müller as "the originator of the concept of 'specific energy of nerves' and of the 'theory of identical points' of two eyes in single binocular vision.": Hirschberg, para 1015: Waller, 6734: Burton Chance, J. Müller, a sketch of his life and ophth. works, "Transactions of the Am. Ophth. Soc., 42, pp. 230 - 242 (1944): Albert e.a. Source Book, item 1623: '... 1801 - 1858, founder of modern physiology, ... pupils include Schwann, Henle, Kölliker, Virchow, DuBois-Reymond, Helmholtz and Brücke ...[the "Gesichtssinnes des Menschen" is] One of Müller's earliest and most important works ... His "Law of Specific Nerve Energies", which states that humans do not perceive the process of the external world but only the effects they produce on their sensory systems, is contained herein.': Gorin, p. 124: 'Mueller was a true scientist, a man of many interests and of great objectivity in evaluating scientific facts.': Copy w. signature in ink on titlepage of one of the greatest (Dutch) ophthalmologists ever [F.C.] Donders (Franciscus Cornelis Donders, Tilburg 1818 - Utrecht 1889). See also DSB IV, 162/3 and Van Leersum, Het Levenswerk van F.C.Donders (Haarlem, Bohn, 1932).

Keywords: ophthalmology medicine W36