Deb- I think this is probably extracted from the text sources (historical). This sounds almost verbatim to the treatment of Helmholtz in Boring. Those treatments usually treat Helmholtz as if he were some kind of a pre-psychological campaigner. In fact, he saw psychology as a retreat to vitalist superstition and as antiscientific. If you look at the preface to his last text, for example, you'll see that he calls on his students and followers to finish the job he started and show all of psychology to be superstition and nonsense. If you go back to the original writings, I just can't recollect anything he wrote that suggested he ever did more than the mathematical proof of conservation of energy. (But I'd have to go back and re-read all that since it is only something I teach now as well. So I'm kind of doing the same thing I'm accusing the textbooks of doing except I'm actually depending on my own memory of Helmholtz as opposed to having never read it in the first place, which some suggest is true of much of the psychological information on him). :) Tim
-----Original Message----- From: Deb Briihl [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 11:51 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Re: Helmhotz and frogs I'm the one who asked that. Thanks - I wondered. Here is the quote from the book that I am using Hergenhahn: "While in the army, he was able to build a small laboratory and to continue his early research, which concerned metabolic processes in the frog. Helmholtz demonstrated that food and oxygen consumption were able to account for the total energy that an organism expended. He was thus able to apply the already popular principle of conservation of energy to living organisms." That isn't the only text that suggested that connection (although I have no idea where I read it first). At 10:51 AM 9/29/2005 -0400, you wrote: >Yesterday on TIPS, someon asked about hos Helmholtz wenst about >measuring the amount of energy put into and expended by a frog (to >prove conservation of energy in living things). I've done a bit of >searching and consulting over the past day, and it appears at this >stage of my investigation that there was no such experiment conducted by Helmholtz. >His work on conservation of energy (1847 -- see my "Classics in the >History of Psychology" site) was theoretical. There may have been >(much) later experiments done by others along the lines suggested, but >I have not been able to find exact references. Helmholtz's primary work >with frogs involved his measuring the speed of neural transmission, not >conservation of energy. The two ideas may have become confused with >each other (as with many of these popular historical myths), resulting >in the idea of an experiment on conservation of energy involving frogs. > >Regards, >-- >Christopher D. Green >Department of Psychology >York University >Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.yorku.ca/christo >Office: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 >Fax: 416-736-5814 > > > >--- >You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To >unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Deb Dr. Deborah S. Briihl Dept. of Psychology and Counseling Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 31698 (229) 333-5994 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://chiron.valdosta.edu/dbriihl/ Well I know these voices must be my soul... Rhyme and Reason - DMB --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
