Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann (1 July 1801,
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
– 21 April 1877,
Halle an der Saale
Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the German state of Saxony-Anh ...
) was a German
physiologist, anatomist, and
philosopher. He specialized in the study of the nervous and optic systems.
Biography
Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann was born in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
, and enrolled in medicine there in 1821. Together with
Gustav Theodor Fechner
Gustav Theodor Fechner (; ; 19 April 1801 – 18 November 1887) was a German physicist, philosopher, and experimental psychologist. A pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics (techniques for measuring the mind), he inspired ...
, who got his degree in medicine in 1822, and
Rudolph Hermann Lotze (1817–1881) they formed a small intellectual group which dissolved only in 1837 when Volkmann received his professorship in Dorpat.
In 1826 he obtained his doctorate and in 1828 he was habilitated as ''
Privatdozent'' at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
. It was there that he became professor extraordinary of zootomy in 1834. In 1837 he went to
Dorpat
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
(now
Tartu) as professor of physiology,
pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
and
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
. However, his residence in Dorpat was short: he left for
Halle as early as 1843. After moving to Halle, Volkmann helped
Gustav Theodor Fechner
Gustav Theodor Fechner (; ; 19 April 1801 – 18 November 1887) was a German physicist, philosopher, and experimental psychologist. A pioneer in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics (techniques for measuring the mind), he inspired ...
, his brother-in-law (married to Volkmann's sister
Clara Fechner), with many experiments that formed the foundation of the epochal ''Elemente der Psychophysik''.
(his daughter Anna Anschütz was later experimental subject for Fechner).
In 1854 Volkmann additionally took on the teaching of anatomy, until 1872, when physiology was branched off and given to
Julius Bernstein.
Volkmann's house in Halle was a center of the city's social life. Among his friends were the painters
Wilhelm von Kügelgen
Wilhelm Georg Alexander von Kügelgen (20 November 1802, in St.Petersburg – 25 May 1867, in Ballenstedt) was a German portrait and history painter, writer, and chamberlain at the Court of Anhalt-Bernburg. He is best known for his posthumo ...
,
Friedrich Preller and
Ludwig Richter, as well as the musicians
Robert Franz
Robert Franz Julius Knauth (28 June 1815 – 24 October 1892) was a German composer, mainly of lieder.
Biography
Franz was born in Halle, Germany, the son of Christoph Franz Knauth. In 1847, Christoph Knauth adopted his middle name Franz as his ...
, and
Clara
Clara may refer to:
Organizations
* CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization
* Clara.Net, a European ISP
* Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium
People
* Clara (given name), a feminine gi ...
and
Robert Schumann.
In 1872, after his fiftieth doctoral jubilee he retired completely from his university activities. He died in
Halle.
Research
Today, Volkmann is most remembered for his additions to the physiology of the nervous system and physiological optics. In 1842 he demonstrated that
sympathetic nerves were largely made up of medullated fibres arising from
sympathetic and spinal
ganglia. However, he also delineated and identified numerous features of gross anatomy, including ''
Volkmann's canals
Volkmann's canals, also known as perforating holes or channels, are anatomic arrangements in cortical bones. Volkmann's canals are inside osteons. They interconnect the haversian canals with each other and the periosteum. They usually run at obtus ...
''. Probably equally important, however, are his contributions to psychophysics and perception research. Fechner developed his classical psychophysical ''Method of average error'' (already in use in astronomy) in co-operation with Volkmann.
In his 1864 treatise,
Volkmann studied Weber's law and reported that the threshold for distance discrimination increases with the increase of the reference distance. This was one of the first demonstrations of Weber's law in the visual domain.
Volkmann's extensive experimental data in that book
was the main basis on which
Ewald Hering
Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering (5 August 1834 – 26 January 1918) was a German physiologist who did much research into color vision, binocular perception and eye movements. He proposed opponent color theory in 1892.
Born in Alt-Gersdorf, Ki ...
developed his theory of hyperacuity in 1899.
Philosophically, Volkmann was an
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
who opposed
materialism and gave a number of speeches against the materialist assumption of identity between the body and mind.
Works
*''Anatomy of Animals'' (1831–33)
*''The Independence of the Sympathetic System of Nerves'' (1842)
*''Elasticity of Muscles'' (1856)
*''Physiological Investigations in the Field of Optics (Physiologische Untersuchungen im Gebiete der Optik)'' (1863)
Family
Richard von Volkmann
Richard von Volkmann (17 August 1830 – 28 November 1889) was a prominent German surgeon and author of poetry and fiction. Some of his works were illustrated by his son, Hans, a well known artist.
Biography
He was born in Leipzig on 17 August ...
, his son, became a distinguished surgeon.
References
Sources
* B.G. Firkin & J.A.Whitworth (1987). ''Dictionary of Medical Eponyms''. Parthenon Publishing.
*
External links
Short biography and bibliographyin the
Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. T ...
of the
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...
Halle University's page (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkmann, Alfred Wilhelm
1801 births
1877 deaths
German physiologists
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
Leipzig University alumni
Academic staff of Leipzig University
Academic staff of the University of Tartu
Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Rectors of the University of Tartu