Bethe

BETHE, Albrecht (born 1872), professor of physiology in Kiel (1911) and Frankfurt am Main (from 1914), one of the editors of "Pfliigers Archiv." The works of B. concern the histology and physiology of the nervous system, as well as the psychology of animals. A number of works are devoted to neurofibrils, for the discovery of which Bethe proposed a special method; in vertebrates, in his opinion, the fibrils only pass through nerve cells, not forming networks within them. The entire nervous system represents a giant network of neurofibrils, which play the main role, and nerve cells serve only as nutritional centers (in the crab Carcinus maenas, removal of nerve cells does not destroy the reflex). In psychology, B. is a representative of the objective method, denying the psychic character of reactions in invertebrates.