Early Life and Scientific Career
Fechner was born at Groß Särchen, near Muskau, in Lower Lusatia, where his father was a pastor. He was educated first at Sorau. In 1817 he studied of medicine at the Medizinisch-Chirurgische Akademie in Dresden and from 1818 at the University of Leipzig, the city in which he spent the rest of his life. In 1834 he was appointed professor of physics. But in 1839, he contracted an eye disorder while studying the phenomena of color and vision, and, after much suffering, resigned. Subsequently recovering, he turned to the study of the mind and its relations with the body, giving public lectures on the subjects dealt with in his books.
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