Magnus Gustaf Blix (1849-1904); Neurophysiological,Physiological, and Engineering Virtuoso

This paper was written to honour the 150th anniversary of the birth of Magnus Gustaf Blix. Blix belongs to the small group of 19th century physiologic neuroscientists who still regularly are cited, on account of having presented fundamental results. He contributed to three fields: somatic sensation, and visual and muscular function. He was the first to publish evidence regarding modality specific receptors in the skin. He extended the work of Hermann von Helmholtz on the optical properties of the anterior ocular chamber of living humans, after having constructed the necessary apparatus. He also measured the heat production of contracting muscles. For this purpose he constructed the apparatus that provided a start for A. V. Hill’s Nobel Prize-winning work in the field. He showed for the first time that the power of muscle contractions depended on the length/extension of the muscle fibres. He worked on the possibility of muscle powered human aviation. For this purpose he constructed a bicycle dynamometer for measuring the maximal human power output. He was the vice-chancellor of Lund university when he died from an acute disease in 1904 at the age of only 55 years.