Johannes Peter Müller
Koblenz 1801 - Berlin 1858
Among the founders of modern physiology, after studying in Berlin, he became assistant professor of K.A. Rudolphi at the University of Berlin (1823). The following year he qualified for university teaching and in 1833 he replaced the same Rudolphi. His Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen is very important. In it he formulated the law of the specific energy of the senses, drawn up again later by H. von Helmholtz. Besides von Helmholtz, other notable scholars among his students were: E. Du-Bois Reymond, R. Virkow, E. Hackel, T. Schwann.
Bibliography: O. Breidbach, Zur Argumentations- und Vermittlungsstrategie, in Müllers Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen, «Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology», 10, 2005, pp. 3-30; M. Hagner, B. Wahrig-Schmidt (hrsg.), Johannes Müller und die Philosophie, Berlin, Akademie Verlag 1993; B. Lohff, Johannes Müller, Integration und Transformation naturphilosophischer Naturinterpretation, in O. Breitbach, T. Bach (hrsg.), Naturphilosophie nach Schelling, Holzbrook, Frankfurt a.M. 2005, pp. 331-70; B. Lohff, Johannes Müller and the beginnings of experimental neurophysiology: concepts and strategies, «Physis. Rivista internazionale di storia della scienza», XXXVI, 1999, pp. 339-354.