Verworn, Max

Born Nov. 4, 1863, in Berlin; died Nov. 23, 1921, in Bonn. German physiologist.

Verworn graduated from the universities of Berlin and Jena, earning the degrees of doctor of philosophy (1887) and doctor of medicine (1889). From 1891 to 1900 he was an assistant and un-salaried lecturer at the University of Jena, and in 1895 he became a professor. He became a professor at the University of Göttingen in 1901 and professor and director of a physiological institute in Bonn in 1910. He founded the journal Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Physiologie.

Verworn’s basic works deal with biology, the physiology of the cell, and the anatomy and physiology of the neuron. Verworn developed the school of what he called cell physiology of the nervous system. He was the author of a series of works on the physiological basis of memory, behavior, and character.