Müller's textbook of human physiology was one of the most important of its kind in the 19th century. Müller not only presented state of the art physiology, but additionally a new approach to physiological experimentation. The aim of physiology was, he maintained, the most complete analysis possible of the physico-chemical reactions that make up the animal body. In practice, he realized, such an analysis was impossible at the time. Yet physiology should adopt just such a reductive approach, describing the various physiological processes as constitutive of the functional morphology of organisms. For this purpose, the nerve-muscle junction proved ideal. Following on from the 18th century study of animal electricity, a particular experimental set-up had become established by the early 19th century, which made possible the examination of reactions at the nerve-muscle junction and thus of the physiology of muscle movement and its control. By this time, the observed reactions were seen as effected life energies or life forces and became burdened by a theoretical overload. Experimental practices showed, however, that these vitalist notions were irrelevant, and as a result the reaction itself became the focus of physiological studies. In the article the strategy by which Müller enfolds his idea of a scientific physiology is reconstructed and the place of experiment and observation in Müllerian physiology is described, outlining physiology as a new prototype of experimental science.
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