Pierre Marie Augustin Charpentier (15 June 1852 – 4 August 1916) was a French physician and professor of the

University of Nancy A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. He is known for his work on human vision and optics, including the discovery of the size–weight illusion.

Life

Pierre Marie Augustin Charpentier was born in Argenton-sur-Creuse, France. in 1852. He was assistant of Edmund Landolt between 1875 and 1878. He studied medicine in

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

, and defended his doctoral thesis in Paris in 1877. His thesis was related to vision (). In 1878, he was admitted together with , to the new the chair of physics and medicine of the University of Nancy, Charpentier leading the

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

part. He becomes full professor of medicine in 1879. In 1888, he became the national correspondent of the physics and chemistry division for the Académie nationale de médecine. In 1900, he attended and presented a paper at the first International Congress of Physics, during the ''Exposition Universelle'', He replaced Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval as chairman of the biophysics session. He died in 1916, in his city of birth.

Research

Vision

In 1891 he carried out the first experiment providing evidence of the size–weight illusion. He carried out a various number of procedures comparing what people thought was the heaviness of lifted weights. He realized that lifters thought that larger objects were lighter than smaller objects of the same mass. Chapentier invented a differential photoptometer to study the sensibility of the

retina The retina (; or retinas) is the innermost, photosensitivity, light-sensitive layer of tissue (biology), tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some Mollusca, molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focus (optics), focused two-dimensional ...

to low intensity light. He studied the retinal oscillations (), term that he coined.

N-rays

Charpentier consecrated 15 papers to the study of the allegedly discovered N-rays. This radiation was discovered by Prosper-René Blondlot in Nancy and was largely studied there, but was later found to be illusory.

Honors and awards

He was member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

and the Académie nationale de médecine. He earned the Buignet prize of the Académie nationale de médecine in 1883, the Montyon Prize by the French Academy of Science in 1885, and the 1901. He was named officer of public instruction in 1890 and knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1906.

References

19th-century French physicians 1852 births 1916 deaths {{France-med-bio-stub