Max Verworn

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Max Richard Constantin Verworn (November 4, 1863 - November 23, 1921) was a German physiologist who was a native of Berlin. He studied medicine and natural sciences in Berlin, and later moved to Jena, where he furthered his studies with Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) and William Thierry Preyer (1841-1897). In 1895 he became a professor at the University of Jena, and in 1901 a professor of physiology at the Institute of Physiology at Göttingen. In 1910 he was a professor at the University of Bonn.

Max Verworn is remembered for his research in the field of experimental physiology, and particularly his work involving cellular physiology. He did extensive studies concerning the elementary physiological processes that take place in muscle tissue, nerve fibers and sensory organs. He also introduced the concept of "conditionalism" to describe a state or process determined by totality of its processes. He was influenced by Ernst Haeckel's theory of evolutionism, and postulated that physiological phenomena observed in higher animals may be recognizable in simple life-forms.

Later in his career, Verworn became interested in the fields of phylogenesis and ontogenesis, and also performed studies of human creativity and thought processes. In his studies of art, he believed that there were two types of style and aims of artistic representation. These two concepts he called "physioplastic" and "ideoplastic". He described physioplastic as direct reproduction of the object or its immediate image in memory, and ideoplastic as an intutitive attempt to create what the eye sees. In 1902 he founded the journal Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Physiology (Journal of General Physiology), and was its publisher until his death in 1921.