Frans Cornelis Donders, 1818-1889.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Frans Cornelis Donders, 1818-1889. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    years. He was also enriching Physiology in other directions, even though well-nigh exhausting his strength in doing so : for he had been also serving the University as Rector, an office which he re¬ linquished in 1853.* In conjunction with Dr. Bauduin he undertook a Manual of Physiology, which, however, he could only carry as far as the first volume, ‘Special Physiology’ (1853)—for its time a work of authority, and still the best record of contemporary teaching. In 1857, he discovered that in each vowel sound the mouth is tuned to a definite pitch, alike in men, women, and children using a common speech, and differing only with difference of dialect; this was confirmed by Helmholtz. Again, in 1865, Donders took the first step in a new field of research, by determining the rapidity of perceptions of Thought and of the Will. Others had arrived at the physiological time, or that required for reacting by a movement on a nervous irri¬ tation. But in the next succeeding years he carried these exquisite investigations much further, analysing the time taken in simple, and also in many and various complex, psychical processes, by a most ingenious and refined method, which he explained in 1876, at one of the Conferences at South Kensington in connexion with the Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus.t Others of his physiological papers deserving special mention, among a great number, were : “ On the timbre of the Vowels,” “Muscular Work and Development of Heat in relation to the necessary Elements of Pood,” “ On the Tongue-instruments in the Organs of the Voice and Speech,” “ Influence of the Vagus Uerve on the Cardiac Movements,” “ On Associations, congenital and acquired ” (the latter are the result of habit in the individual, the former represent habit in the species), “ The Chemical Phenomena of Respiration are a Process of Dissocia¬ tion;”—indeed, to the close of his life he remained indefatigable in the domain of Physiology, almost continuously winning new laurels in one or other of its departments. In 1862 an event had occurred having an important influence in this direction. By the death of Schroeder van der Kolk the chair of Physiology fell vacant, and it was immediately pressed upon his acceptance, with the understanding that a new Physiological Laboratory should be erected for his use. This was an appeal he could not withstand, though aware that it would involve a partial, and, gradually, an almost complete, relinquishment of his ophthalmic practice. But Physiology in its widest range, with the ample field it presented for Research, had been his first love, and to this his inclination now gradually led him back. His esteemed pupil, Snellen, became his colleague at the Hospital, and eventually succeeded him there; while Thomas W. Engelmann, who was to be in course of * Vide note *, ante, p. xv. + Vide ‘ Science Conferences,’ 1876, Section Biology, pp. 224—228.
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