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Ernst Mach and Johannes Kessel in Prague 1871–1874

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Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence

Part of the book series: Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook ((VCIY,volume 22))

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Abstract

Among the numerous activities of the younger Ernst Mach in the development of psychophysics, there is a period of cooperation with the German otologist Johannes Kessel (1839–1907) in Prague from 1871 to 1874, which was not investigated in detail before. This cooperation was important because a number of essential findings in the psychophysics of hearing were published by both authors. Preparing a biography of Kessel, we collected new material about his cooperation with Mach from hitherto unpublished letters, archive material, and from Mach’s unpublished diaries from the corresponding years. This paper describes the previous activities of Mach in psychophysics of hearing including the development of the required methods, the grant from the Vienna Academy for the investigation of the sound conduction in the human hearing organ through the middle ear and especially through the ossicles, the curriculum vitae of Kessel before he came to Prague, the contents and the results of the common research in Prague, and the influence of this period on the further development of Mach and Kessel.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dieter Hoffmann; Hubert Laitko (eds.): Ernst Mach, Studien und Dokumente zu Leben und Werk. Berlin: Dt. Verl der Wissensch. 1991; John T. Blackmore et al.: Ernst Mach’s Prague 1867–1896 as a Human Adventure. Sentinel Open Press 2010.

  2. 2.

    Rüdiger Hoffmann; Lutz-Peter Löbe; Wieland Pfeiffer: „Ich holte meine Prager Schriften.“ Leben und Werk des Otologen Johannes Kessel (1839–1907). Dresden: TUDpress 2015 (Studientexte zur Sprachkommunikation; 80).

  3. 3.

    Ernst Mach: Zwei populäre Vorlesungen über musikalische Akustik. Graz: Leuschner & Lubensky 1865, pp. 5–6.

  4. 4.

    Ernst Mach: Zur Theorie des Gehörorgans. Sitzungsber. d. math.-naturwiss. Classe der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., vol. 48, II. Abt., 1863, pp. 283–300.

  5. 5.

    Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, files no. 1109/1863 and 17/1864. These documents are reprinted in Hoffmann/Löbe/Pfeiffer (2015), loc. cit., appendix A.

  6. 6.

    Ernst Mach: Weitere Mittheilung über die Beobachtung von Schwingungen. Anzeiger der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., Math.-Naturwiss. Klasse, vol. 7, 1870, p. 43–44.

  7. 7.

    Adam Politzer, report about Kessel for the University of Graz, 1879, cited in: Gertrud Stelzig: Johannes Kessel – Vater der Stapes- und funktionellen Mittelohrchirurgie. Ztschr. f. Laryngologie, Rhinologie, Otologie u. ihre Grenzgebiete, vol. 49, no. 9, 1970, pp. 551–564.

  8. 8.

    These letters are now reprinted in Hoffmann/Löbe/Pfeiffer (2015), loc. cit., appendix B.

  9. 9.

    Archive of the Deutsches Museum, Munich, estate of Ernst Mach, signatures NL 174/505 to 509.

  10. 10.

    Ernst Mach; Johannes Kessel: Vorläufige Mittheilung. Centralblatt für die medicinischen Wissenschaften, vol. 9, no. 38, 1871, p. 593.

  11. 11.

    Dieter Hoffmann: Ernst Mach in Prag. In Hoffmann/Laitko (1991), loc. cit., pp. 141–178.

  12. 12.

    Praha, Narodní Archiv, notice from April 18, 2008.

  13. 13.

    Ernst Mach; Johannes Kessel: Die Function der Trommelhöhle und der Tuba Eustachii. Sitzungsber. d. math.-naturwiss. Classe der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., vol. 66, III. Abt., 1872, pp. 329–336. — Ernst Mach; Johannes Kessel: Versuche über die Accomodation des Ohres. Sitzungsber. d. math.-naturwiss. Classe der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., vol. 66, III. Abt., 1872, pp. 337–343.

  14. 14.

    Mach and Kessel supposed, that the Musculus tensor tympany would act as an accommodation organ. Mach recognized soon, that there was no evidence for this, but Kessel believed this as long he lived and propagated the tenotomy of the tensor tympani as a suited surgical procedure.

  15. 15.

    Ernst Mach: Über die stroboskopische Bestimmung der Tonhöhe. Sitzungsber. d. math.-naturwiss. Classe der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., vol. 66, II. Abt., 187), pp. 267–274.

  16. 16.

    Johannes Kessel: Über den Einfluss der Binnenmuskeln der Paukenhöhle auf die Bewegungen und Schwingungen des Trommelfells am todten Ohre. Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, vol. 8, no. 1, 1873/74, pp. 80–92.

  17. 17.

    Stroboscopic images of vibrations of the living ear were produced for the first time by the Berlin otologist August Lucae (1835–1911); cf. Das Oto-Stroboskop und seine physiologische diagnostische Bedeutung. Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, vol. 53, 1901, pp. 39–51.

  18. 18.

    Wolfgang Köhler: Akustische Untersuchungen. Zeitschr. f. Psychologie, vol. 54, 1910, pp. 241–289.

  19. 19.

    Ernst Mach: Optisch-Akustische Versuche. Die spectrale und stroboskopische Untersuchung tönender Körper. Prag: Calve 1873.

  20. 20.

    Johannes Kessel: Über die diagnostische Verwerthung gewisser Befunde am Trommelfell und der Pauckenhöhle. Tageblatt der 46. Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte in Wiesbaden vom 18. bis 24. September 1873, pp. 39, 172–173. — Extended version in: Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, vol. 8, no. 2, 1873/74, pp. 231–236.

  21. 21.

    Ernst Mach: Physikalische Versuche über den Gleichgewichtssinn des Menschen. Sitzungsber. d. math.-naturwiss. Classe der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., vol. 68, III. Abt., 1873, pp. 124–140.

  22. 22.

    Ernst Mach: Methode die einzelnen Theile des Gehörorgans richtig graphisch darzustellen. Johannes Kessel: Über die Bedeutung der halbzirkelförmigen Canäle des Ohrlabyrinthes. Lotos – Zeitschrift für Naturwissenschaften, vol. 21, no. 11, 1871, p. 198.

  23. 23.

    Ernst Mach: Selbstbiographie (1913). In: Hoffmann/Laitko (1991), loc. cit., pp. 428–441, here especially p. 435.

  24. 24.

    Ernst Mach; Johannes Kessel: Beiträge zur Topographie und Mechanik des Mittelohres. Sitzungsber. d. math.-naturwiss. Classe der Kaiserl. Akademie d. Wissensch., vol. 69, III. Abt., 1874, pp. 221–243.

  25. 25.

    Ernst Mach, Lotos, loc. cit.

  26. 26.

    The measurements include some results on the semicircular canals, which supports the opinion that Mach’s work on the equilibrium profited from the investigations.

  27. 27.

    Ernst Mach: Grundlinien der Lehre von den Bewegungsempfindungen. Leipzig: Engelmann 1875.

  28. 28.

    W. Höflechner; I. M. Wagner (eds.): Alexander Rollett – Seine Welt in Briefen 1844–1903. Graz: Akadem. Druck- u. Verlagsanst. 2012. Cf. especially the letter L.743.

  29. 29.

    Johannes Kessel: Über das Ausschneiden des Trommelfelles und Mobilisiren des Steigbügels. Oesterreichische Aerztliche Vereinszeitung, vol. 3, no. 24, 1879, pp. 203–205.

  30. 30.

    In the French literature, the influence of Mach was estimated as big, that the first stapes mobilization was attributed to him, which is definitely wrong; cf. André A. Sultan: Histoire de l’otologie. Acta Oto-Rhino-Laryngologica Belgica, vol. 35, supplement II – V, pp. 1141–1398, here especially p. 1348. The error was adopted recently by Rince A. Tange: The history of otosclerosis treatment. Amsterdam: Kugler 2014, p. 6.

  31. 31.

    Johannes Kessel, Letter to Sidonie Moritsch, February 10, 1876, reprinted in: Hoffmann/Löbe/Pfeiffer, loc. cit., pp. 200–202.

  32. 32.

    Ernst Mach, Selbstbiographie (1913), loc. cit., p. 436.

  33. 33.

    Victor Hensen: Physiologie des Gehörs. In: Ludimar Hermann (ed.): Handbuch der Physiologie, vol 3. Leipzig: Vogel 1880, pp. 1–142.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Akustik und Sprachkommunikation, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Rüdiger Hoffmann

  2. Formerly Klinik Borkum Riff, Dresden, Germany

    Lutz-Peter Löbe

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  1. Rüdiger Hoffmann
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  2. Lutz-Peter Löbe
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Correspondence to Rüdiger Hoffmann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute Vienna Circle, University of Vienna, Vienna Circle Society, Vienna, Austria

    Friedrich Stadler

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Hoffmann, R., Löbe, LP. (2019). Ernst Mach and Johannes Kessel in Prague 1871–1874. In: Stadler, F. (eds) Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04378-0_19

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