Fick, Adolf Eugen (1829-1901)

German physiologist who worked on the physics of how the human body works, particularly the eyes, heart, and muscles. He devised techniques to quantify body functions, such as muscle contraction, impulse conduction by nerves, and blood pressure in the heart. He also described the physics of how the eye works, especially the blind spot of the retina.

In one experiment he disproved the then accepted belief that the energy of muscle contraction was derived from the oxidation of muscle cells, and that the nitrogen excreted in urine increases as a result. He and a colleague scaled the Faulhorn in Switzerland having starved themselves of nitrogenous food for the previous 17 hours. By analysing their own urine they found that they had done at least three times as much work as could be accounted for by the metabolism of protein.

Fick was born in Kassel, Germany and studied medicine at Marburg University before completing his doctoral studies 1851. From 1868 until his death, Fick was the professor of physiology at Würzburg.