Magnus Gustaf Blix (25 December 1849 – 14 February 1904) was a Swedish

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and ...

born in the parish Säbrå, presently located in

Härnösand Municipality Härnösand Municipality () is a Municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Västernorrland County, northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Härnösand (pop. 18,000). The present municipality was formed in 1969 through the Amalgamation (politics), ...

. He is the grandfather of UN weapons inspector

Hans Blix Hans Martin Blix (; born 28 June 1928) is a Swedish diplomat and politician for the Liberal People's Party. He was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs (1978–1979) and later became the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Blix wa ...

. During his career he was a professor at the Universities of

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

and

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

. Blix was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 1892. Blix is best known for his work in the 1880s involving

somatic Somatic may refer to: * Somatic (biology), referring to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells ** Somatic cell, a non-gametic cell in a multicellular organism * Somatic nervous system, the portion of the vertebrate nervous syst ...

sensation. He discovered that electrical stimulation on different points on the surface of the skin caused distinct warm or cool sensations. Subsequently he built a "

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

stimulator" which showed that a decreased skin temperature produced cool sensations from localized spots at separate skin locations. He also discovered that increased temperature induced warm sensations from different

cutaneous Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different d ...

locations. In addition he performed tests that involved localized

tactile Tactile may refer to: * Tactile, related to the sense of touch * Haptics (disambiguation) * Tactile (device), a text-to-braille translation device * Tactile paving See also * Tangibility, in law * Somatosensory system The somatosensory s ...

sensitivity. In 1881–82 Blix published his findings in two important documents. During this time frame, German

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

Alfred Goldscheider Johannes Karl Eugen Alfred Goldscheider (4 August 1858 – 10 April 1935) was a German neurologist born into a Jewish family in Sommerfeld, Kingdom of Prussia. He studied medicine at Friedrich-Wilhelm Medical-Surgical Institute in Berlin (pro ...

(1858–1935), and American physician Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857–1938) of

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

were performing similar experiments, independent of Blix. Blix is also credited for conducting extensive research on the

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...

s. He died in

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

References

* Cutaneous sensory spots and the

law of specific nerve energies The law of specific nerve energies, first proposed by Johannes Peter Müller in 1835, is that the nature of perception is defined by the pathway over which the sensory information is carried. Hence, the origin of the sensation is not important. The ...

(biography)
Biography of Magnus Blix
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blix, Magnus Gustaf 1849 births 1904 deaths Swedish physiologists Academic staff of Lund University Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences People from Härnösand Municipality