Franciscus Donders

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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 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—specifically the topic of mental chronometry.

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Franciscus Cornelis Donders

• B. Theunissen. Franciscus Cornelis Donders 1818-1889, F.C. Donders: turning refracting into science, @ History of science and scholarship in the Netherlands.
• Picture, biography, and bibliography 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.