Weber

Weber, Ernst Heinrich (Ernst Heinrich Weber, 1795-1878), German anatomist and physiologist. Weber was professor of comparative anatomy (1818), human anatomy (1821), and physiology (1840) in Leipzig; he discovered rudiments of the uterus in male individuals (humans and higher mammals), gave one of the first and rather complete descriptions of the sympathetic nervous system for his time, and is especially known for his works on the physiology of sensory organs, mainly vision, hearing, and skin sensations. To measure the latter, Weber proposed a compass bearing his name. Weber was the first to express the idea of a quantitative relationship between the magnitude of external stimulation and the resulting sensation—an idea that received its precise formulation in the well-known "Weber-Fechner law". Weber, thus, should be considered the founder of psychophysics and psychometrics, from which later developed all experimental psychology. Weber's main works: "Anatomia comparata nervi sympathici", Lipsiae, 1817; "Wellenlehre", Lipsiae, 1825; "Die Lehre vom Tastsinn u. Gemeingefühl", Braunschweig, 1851; "Zusatze zur Lehre vom Baue u. den Verrichtungen der Geschlechtsorgane", Lpz., 1846; "De pulsu resorptione auditu et tactu", Lipsiae, 1834.