Franciscus Donders
Franciscus Cornelis Donders | |
---|---|
Franciscus Cornelis Donders | |
Born |
27 May 1818 Tilburg |
Died |
24 March 1889 (aged 70) Utrecht |
Nationality | Dutch |
Fields | ophthalmology |
Institutions | Utrecht University |
Known for | eye diseases |
Franciscus (Franz) Cornelius Donders FRS FRSE (27 May 1818, in Tilburg – 24 March 1889, in Utrecht) was a Dutch ophthalmologist. During his career, he was a professor of physiology in Utrecht, and was internationally regarded as an authority on eye diseases, directing the Netherlands Hospital for Eye Patients. Along with Graefe and Helmholtz, he was one of the primary founders of scientific ophthalmology.
Life
He was born in Tilburg in the Netherlands the son of Jan Franz Donders and Agnes Elizabeth Hegh. He was educated at Duizel School and seminaries in both Tilburg and Boxmeer.[1]
For several years the young Donders studied at the Royal Dutch Hospital for Military Medicine in Utrecht, then earning his M.D. in 1840 from the University of Leiden. Following a stint as a medical officer in the Hague, in 1842 he was appointed as a lecturer in physiology and anatomy at the Utrecht military medical school. In 1847 he became an associate professor at Utrecht University, and in 1862 attained a full professorship in physiology.[2] In 1847 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, when that became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851 he joined as member.[3]
He is known for his work and research of eye disease, and was among the first practitioners of the ophthalmoscope.[4] He is credited with invention of an impression tonometer (1862),[5] and for introduction of prismatic and cylindrical lenses for treatment of astigmatism (1860).[6]
Donders also was the first to use differences in human reaction time to infer differences in cognitive processing. He tested both simple reaction time and choice reaction time, finding that simple reaction was faster.[7] This concept is now one of the central tenets of cognitive psychology— while mental chronometry is not a topic in itself, it is one of the most common tools used for making inferences about processes such as learning, memory, and attention.
Donders founded the Nederlands Gasthuis voor Behoeftige en Minvermogende Ooglijders ( in short: Ooglijdersgasthuis) - the Netherlands Hospital for Necessitous Eye-Patients in 1858. His first associate was Herman Snellen.[8] In 1864 he published the highly acclaimed "On the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye".[9]
His name is associated with "Donders' law", which states that "the rotation of the eyeball is determined by the distance of the object from the median plane and the line of the horizon".[10] He is also well recognized in the dental community for naming the "space of Donders", the space between the dorsum of the tongue and the hard palate when the mandible is at rest.[11]
He died in Utrecht on 24 March 1889.
Family
He married twice: first in 1845 to Ernestine Zimmerman (d.1887); secondly in 1888 to Abrahamine Arnolda Louisa Hubrecht.[12]
References
- ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
- ↑ Picture, biography, bibliography and digitized sources in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
- ↑ "Franciscus Cornelis Donders (1818 - 1889)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
- ↑ Gijn J van, Gijselhart JP (2011). "[Franciscus Donders (1818-1889): ophthalmologist and physiologist]". Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde (in Dutch and Flemish) 155: A1979. PMID 21291574.
- ↑ Instruments of science: an historical encyclopedia edited by Robert Bud, Deborah Jean Warner
- ↑ Google Books An Introduction to the history of medicine by Fielding Hudson Garrison
- ↑ Goldstein, E. B. Cognitive psychology, connecting mind, research, and everyday experience. Wadsworth Pub Co, 2010. Print.
- ↑ den Tonkelaar e.a. 1996, p. 13
- ↑ Google Books On the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye
- ↑ Donders' law Mondofacto
- ↑ Stedman's Medical Eponyms by Thomas Lathrop Stedman
- ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Franciscus Cornelis Donders. |
- Newell, F W (Jun 1989), "Franciscus Cornelis Donders (1818-1889).", American journal of ophthalmology (Jun 15, 1989) 107 (6): 691–3, ISSN 0002-9394, PMID 2658623
- Duke-Elder, S (Feb 1959), "FRANCISCUS CORNELIS DONDERS", The British journal of ophthalmology 43 (2), pp. 65–8, doi:10.1136/bjo.43.2.65, PMC: 509756, PMID 13628947
- ten DOESSCHATE, G (1951), "[The latest works of Franciscus Cornelis Donders.]", Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde (Apr 7, 1951) 95 (14), pp. 1096–7, PMID 14843224
- TEN DOESSCHATE, G (1951), "[The personality of Franciscus Cornelis Donders.]", Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde (Nov 17, 1951) 95 (46), pp. 3421–41, PMID 14919660
- den Tonkelaar, Isolde, Harold E. Henkes and Gijsbert K. van Leersum (1996) - Eye and instruments : Nineteenth-century ophthalmological instruments in the Netherlands. Amsterdam : Batavian Lion. ISBN 90 6707 400 4. 304 pgs.
External links
- Works by Franciscus Cornelis Donders at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Franciscus Donders at Internet Archive
- B. Theunissen. Franciscus Cornelis Donders 1818-1889, F.C. Donders: turning refracting into science, @ History of science and scholarship in the Netherlands.
- Picture, biography, bibliography and digitized sources in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
- P. Eling, Donders, Frans (1818-1889), Geneeskundige en fysioloog.
- Edwin Maes, Professor dr. Franciscus Cornelis Donders (Tilburg 27-5-1818, Utrecht 24-3-1889) Gravesite of Franciscus Donders.
- Obituary in: "Obituary Notes". Popular Science Monthly 35. June 1889.
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