Question

Hermann von Helmholtz signed the Materialist Manifesto in 1847. What was in this manifesto? Describe how he used experiments with frog legs to prove the materialist hypothesis. What experimental methods or principles did he use in this research that are now essential in psychological experimentation?

Answer 1

Materialist Manifesto - It was signed by the members of Berlin Physical Society which comprised the free thinkers who supported the Darwinian theory and scientific advancement. The important aspect the manifesto proposed was 'all the life forms can be contained in physics and chemistry' which was totally against the religions who believed that God created everything in this world and nothing evolved on its own. Hermann Von Helmholtz was one of the few scientists who mastered medicine and physics.

Proving the materialist hypothesis - Hermann Von Helmholtz in his famous experiment with the Frog's leg proved there is a time lapse when he applied electric current to the hip of the frog. He noted that a chemical reaction happens and then the electric current is passed on to the thigh and to the claves. He did this by stimulating a frog's leg near a muscle where the impact was more and far from the muscle where the electric impact was less. This he did to prove that the living organs could be altered by altering the physical and chemical components.

Experimental methods or principles - He used A frog-drawing machine initially, then moved onto an apparatus called the form of the rise of energy and finally gifted the world with the idea of 'time propagation of the nerve impulse' in simple words measurement of the speed of a nerve impulse. He used the method called energy processes using galvanic and electrolytic apparatus which he kept improving.