Franciscus Donders

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Franciscus Cornelis Donders
Franciscus Cornelis Donders
Born	May 27, 1818 Tilburg
Died	March 24, 1889 Utrecht
Nationality	Dutch
Fields	ophthalmology
Known for	eye diseases

Franciscus Cornelis Donders (Tilburg, May 27, 1818 - Utrecht, March 24, 1889) was a Dutch ophthalmologist and medical scientist who did pioneering work on animal and vegetable heat, among many other things. He was a professor in Physiology in Utrecht from 1847 and was internationally regarded as an authority on eye diseases.

He was the one of the founders of the science of ophthalmology (with von Graefe and Helmholtz) and is primarily known for introducing prismatic and cylindrical lenses for treatment of astigmatism.

Donders also was the first to use differences in human reaction time to infer differences in cognitive processing. 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.

[edit] References

• Newell, F W (1989), “Franciscus Cornelis Donders (1818-1889).”, Am. J. Ophthalmol. 107 (6): 691-3, 1989 Jun 15, PMID:2658623, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2658623> 
• DUKE-ELDER, S (1959), “Franciscus Cornelis Donders.”, The British journal of ophthalmology 43 (2): 65-8, 1959 Feb, PMID:13628947, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13628947> 
• ten DOESSCHATE, G (1951), “[The latest works of Franciscus Cornelis Donders.]”, Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde 95 (14): 1096-7, 1951 Apr 7, PMID:14843224, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14843224> 
• TEN DOESSCHATE, G (1951), “[The personality of Franciscus Cornelis Donders.]”, Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde 95 (46): 3421-41, 1951 Nov 17, PMID:14919660, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14919660> 

[edit] External links

• 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.