Johannes Peter Müller

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German physiologist (1801–1858)

Müller, a shoemaker's son from Koblenz in Germany, graduated in medicine from the University of Bonn in 1822. He worked as a pathologist in Bonn until 1833 when he moved to the University of Berlin as professor of anatomy and physiology, a post he retained until his death.

Müller was the most important figure in 19th-century German physiology. Not only did he number among his pupils such figures as Hermann von Helmholtz, Carl Ludwig, Rudolf Virchow, and Max Schultze but those he did not teach were reached by his influential work, Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (2 vols., 1834–40; Handbook of Human Physiology).

It was in the field of neurophysiology that Müller made his major contribution to science. In 1831 he neatly and conclusively confirmed the law of Charles Bell and François Magendie, which first clearly distinguished between motor and sensory nerves. Using frogs and dogs, Müller cut through the posterior roots of nerves from a limb as they entered the spinal cord. The limb was insensible but not paralyzed. When however Müller severed the anterior root he found that the limb had become paralyzed but had not lost its sensibility.

He also worked on the cranial nerves and succeeded in showing that the first two branches of the trigeminal nerve are sensory while the third branch, to the jaw, contains motor fibers also. The vagus and the glossopharyngeal were, Müller claimed, mixed nerves.

Müller also formulated, in 1826, the law of specific nervous energies, which claimed that nerves are not merely passive conductors but that each particular type of nerve has its own special qualities. For example, the visual nerves, however they may be stimulated, are only capable of transmitting visual data. More specifically, if such a nerve is stimulated, whether by pressure, electric current, or a flashing light, the result will always be a visual experience.

After the completion of the Handbuch in 1840 Müller turned more to problems of anatomy and physiology. He worked with Robert Remak on embryological problems and was the first to describe what later became known as the Müllerian duct. This is a tube found in vertebrate embryos, which develops into the oviduct in females; it is found only vestigially in males. He also spent a large amount of time collecting and classifying zoological specimens.

Müller was much given to fits of depression, frequently feeling that his own creativity was exhausted. Consequently when he was found dead in bed, although no autopsy was ever performed, it was widely assumed that he had died by his own hand.

The German medical scientist Johannes Peter Müller (1801-1858) made important contributions to several branches of medicine, including anatomy, physiology, embryology, and pathology.

Johannes Müller the son of a shoemaker, was born in Coblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, on July 14, 1801. He went to school in Coblenz before studying medicine at the University of Bonn from 1819 until 1822. At Bonn he was influenced by Naturphilosophie, including the belief that the smallest part of nature reflected grand themes running through the whole of creation. After taking his degree at Bonn, he spent 18 months in Berlin studying for the state medical examination. Although he never gave up his belief in a purposeful universe and the large generalizations of Naturphilosophie, he increasingly taught that experimental research was the way forward in medicine.

From 1824 until 1833 Müller taught medicine at Bonn, reaching the rank of professor in 1830. There his main achievements were in embryology and physiology. In 1825 he discovered the duct named after him and went on to make a pioneer study of the development of the genital glands in the embryo. He put forward a theory of color vision based on the study of a variety of animals and also investigated the way in which different nerves functioned.

In 1833 Müller became professor of anatomy and physiology and director of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy at the University of Berlin. He built up a famous school, and his students dominated German medical science in the second half of the 19th century. In 1833 Müller published the first part of his Manual of Human Physiology. It became the leading textbook on its subject and was revised and re-published many times. At Berlin he continued his research on nerve physiology but also undertook extensive investigations in comparative anatomy, writing large works on fishes and echinoderms. He was one of the first to make extensive use of the microscope in pathology, and in 1838 he published a volume on the pathology of tumors. In 1834 he had founded the journal known as Müller's Archiv.

Müller was rector of the University of Berlin during the revolutionary year of 1848, and the strain caused by the political upheavals impaired his health. In 1855 he was rescued from a sinking ship on a return voyage from Norway. He died in Berlin on March 28, 1858, without ever fully recovering from the shock of these two events.

Further Reading

A short account of Müller's life is in Henry E. Sigerist, The Great Doctors: A Biographical History of Medicine (1932).

(1904-67)

One of the second generation of American industrial designers, German-born Müller-Munk was an important figure in the development of industrial design, design consultancy, and the professionalization of design in the United States in the post-Second World War period. As he declared in the late 1940s he was committed to the idea of making the design process ‘a management philosophy’ rather than being restricted to the design of products, an outlook consolidated through his involvement with design practice, education, and national and international professional organizations. Having graduated in the humanities in Berlin, Müller-Munk trained as a silversmith before emigrating to New York in 1926. He worked there as a silver designer for the well-known firm of Tiffany & Co. before opening his own studio in 1929. His design reputation was steadily enhanced by the inclusion of his work in a number of significant exhibitions including the International Exposition of Art in Industry (1928) at Macy's and Contemporary American Design (1928) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In 1930 Müller-Munk moved into product design, an area of expertise that was to become an increasingly important part of his professional identity. His metalware designs were typified by high aesthetic standards and craftsmanship, as seen in the elegantly streamlined chrome-plated brass Normandie jug designed in 1935 for Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated, the latter a leading American giftware company that placed a high premium on design. In the same year he collaborated with Donald Dohner and Robert Lepper in the inauguration of the first American degree programme in industrial design at Pittsburgh-Carnegie Institute of Technology, marking an involvement with pedagogy alongside professional practice. In 1944 he formed Peter Müller-Munk Associates (PMMA), a design consultancy specializing in industrial design. Important clients included Westinghouse and Texaco. Müller-Munk was also significantly involved in the promotion of the industrial design profession, both in the United States and internationally, through a committed involvement in important organizations. These included the Society of Industrial Designers (SID, see Industrial Designers Society of America) and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), serving as president of the former in 1954-5 and as a founding member and inaugural president of the latter from 1957 to 1959. By the time of his death in 1967 PMMA had grown significantly in size and disciplinary expertise, employing 40 staff and providing specialist expertise in product, transportation, and exhibition design. The company later went on to work in communication and environmental design.

(1801–58). German physiologist and anatomist, widely regarded as the founder of modern physiology. Born and educated in Koblenz, he studied medicine at Bonn (1819–22), where he became professor of anatomy and physiology (1830), before moving to take up a similar chair in Berlin (1833). He remained in Berlin for the rest of his life. As rector of the university there in 1838–9 and again in 1847–8, he was inevitably involved in the serious student disturbances during the 1848 revolution, events which troubled him deeply and caused a serious breakdown of his health.

He taught human and comparative anatomy, embryology, physiology, and pathological anatomy, and made important contributions in all these fields. His work included an explanation of the colour sensations produced by pressure on the eye, confirmation of the , and studies of reflex action; he was also one of the first to use the microscope in pathology. His Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (2 vols., 1833–40; English trans. 1840–9) became the standard text in physiology. Among a generation of brilliant physiologists taught by Müller are Helmholtz and Du Bois-Reymond, the latter of whom succeeded him in the chair of physiology at Berlin after his premature death in 1858.

(Published 1987)

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