Ernst Heinrich Weber

For other people named Ernst Weber, see Ernst Weber (disambiguation).

Ernst Heinrich Weber
Ernst Heinrich Weber
Born	June 24, 1795 Wittenberg, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire
Died	January 26, 1878 Leipzig, Saxony
Nationality	German
Known for	experimental psychology
Scientific career
Fields	physician

Ernst Heinrich Weber (June 24, 1795 – January 26, 1878) was a German physician who is considered a founder of experimental psychology.

Weber studied medicine at Wittenberg University. In 1818 he was appointed Associate Professor of comparative anatomy at Leipzig University, where he was made a Fellow Professor of anatomy and physiology in 1821.

In the 1840s Weber discovered that the just-noticeable difference (jnd) of the change in a stimulus's magnitude (viz., small weights held in the hand) is proportional to the stimulus's magnitude (e.g., 5%), rather than being an absolute value (e.g., 5 grams). Gustav Fechner rediscovered this relation in the 1850s and, integrating over Weber's proportional jnds, discovered the logarithmic relation between physical and psychological (or perceived) magnitudes. The law (which Fechner called Weber's Law, but it is generally known now as Fechner's Law or as the Weber-Fechner Law) became the basis of Fechner's new science of psychophysics.

Weber is also noted for his discoveries in anatomy, in particular that of the existence of a rudimentary uterus in male mammals, but his greater fame rests upon his pioneer work in the exploration of the sense organs. His work upon the ear and upon the cutaneous senses — pressure, temperature, and what was then called the ‘space sense’ — gave the deciding impulse to the introduction of the experimental movement into psychology. The important generalization which sometimes bears his name was the first valid generalization in psychophysics.

In 1866 Weber retired as professor of physiology and also as professor of anatomy in 1871. Around this time he and his brother, Eduard Friedrich Weber, discovered the inhibitory power of the vagus nerve.

Works

Chief works:

• Anatomia comparata nervi sympathici (1817)
• De aure et auditu hominis et animalium (1820)
• Tractatus de motu iridis (1821)
• Wellenlehre (1825)

Joint works with his brothers Wilhelm Eduard Weber and Eduard Friedrich Weber:

• Zusätze zur Lehre vom Bau und von der Verrichtung der Geschlechtsorgane (1846)
• Die Lehre vom Tastsinn und Gemeingefühl (185l)
• Annotationes anatomicae et physiologicae (1851)

See also

• Weberian apparatus
• Weber test

References

• "Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878) Leipzig physiologist.", JAMA, vol. 199, no. 4 (published 1967 Jan 23), pp. 272–3, 1967, doi:10.1001/jama.199.4.272, PMID 5334161 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |publication-date= (help)
• Huizing, E H (1973), "The early descriptions of the so-called tuning fork tests of Weber and Rinne. I. The "Weber test" and its first description by Schmalz.", ORL J. Otorhinolaryngol. Relat. Spec., vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 278–82, PMID 4584086
• Meischner, W (1978), "[Ernst Heinrich Weber, 1795-1878]", Zeitschrift für Psychologie mit Zeitschrift für angewandte Psychologie, vol. 186, no. 2, pp. 159–69, PMID 33497
• Zakrzewski, A (1979), "[Ernst Heinrich Weber--a researcher in psychophysics and the physiology of the nervous system]", Otolaryngologia polska. the Polish otolaryngology, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 84, 110, PMID 375161
• Bickerton, R C; Barr, G S (1987), "The origin of the tuning fork.", Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 80, no. 12 (published 1987 Dec), pp. 771–3, PMC 1291142, PMID 3323515 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |publication-date= (help)
• Ross, H E (1995), "Weber then and now.", Perception, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 599–602, PMID 7478901
• Hildebrand, Reinhard (2005), "["... that progress in anatomy is most likely to occur when its problems include the study of growth and function, as well as of structure". about the anatomy and physiology of Ernst Heinrich Weber (794-1878 and Wilhelm His (1831-1904) his successor in the department of anatomy at the University of Leipzig]", Ann. Anat., vol. 187, no. 5–6 (published 2005 Nov), pp. 439–59, doi:10.1016/j.aanat.2005.06.003, PMID 16320825 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |publication-date= (help)
• "Short biography of Ernst Heinrich Weber". Retrieved 2007-11-09.