Karl von Vierordt

Who was Karl von Vierordt?

Karl von Vierordt was a German physician.

He studied at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen, Vienna, and Heidelberg, and began a practice in Karlsruhe in 1842. In 1849 he became a professor of theoretical medicine at the University of Tübingen, and in 1853 a professor of physiology.

Vierordt developed techniques and tools for the monitoring of blood circulation. He is credited for the construction of an early "hemotachometer", an apparatus for monitoring the velocity of blood flow. In 1854, he created a device called a sphygmograph, a mechanism consisting of weights and levers used to estimate blood pressure, and considered to be a forerunner of the modern sphygmomanometer. One of his better known written works was a treatise on the arterial pulse, titled Die Lehre vom Arterienpuls im gesunden und kranken Zustände.

Vierordt also made substantial contributions to the psychology of time perception, via his book Der Zeitsinn nach Versuchen, "The experimental study of the time sense".