Beitrage zur Physiologie

HERING, Ewald (1834-1918). Beitrqge zur Physiologie. [Zur Lehre vom Ortsinne der Netzhaut, Vom Horopter, etc.] 5 pts. in l vol., 8vo. 80; iv, [2], [81]-170; iv, [2], [171]-224; vi, [2], [225]-286, [2]; vi, [2], [287]-358pp. Text illustrations. 231 x 147 mm. Half morocco. A little light dampstaining & foxing, but a very good copy. Leipzig: Engelmann, 1861-64.

FIRST EDITION. Early in his career Hering "mastered the difficult problem of visual space perception and was able to challenge the great master in that field, Hermann von Helmholtz, proposing alternate views that emphasized the physiological rather than the physical aspects of sensation. . . . In 1861-64 Hering published a five-part study on visual space perception in which he favored the nativistic theory, arguing that each point of the retina is endowed with three local signs: one for height, one for breadth, and one for depth. Thus he found himself in opposition to Helmholtz and other empiricists, who believed that location and space forms are learned and arise with continued experience. In this treatise Hering was concerned mainly with binocular vision, the identical points of the two retinas, and the horopter"(D.S.B.)

With this kind of research, Hering exerted a tremendous influence on contemporary sense physiology and on the development of modern psychology, Gestalt in particular. See Garrison-Morton 1515, Hering's theory of color sense, worked out in the 1870's. Not in Becker or Waller.