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The Neuramœbimeter - continued...

The neuramœbimeter measures time by picturing it, and it pictures time by writing it. As much a chronoscopic as a chronographic device, it was introduced to the world of science in 1873 by the Viennese physiologist Sigmund Exner. Following Exner’s ideas and plans, a local instrument maker, Heinitz, furnished the innovative instrument. It experienced a rather brilliant career but quickly fell into oblivion. In 1874, the Austrian psychiatrist Heinrich Obersteiner, a friend of Exner’s, rushed to apply the neuramœbimeter as a ‘simple method for studying the cerebral performance in the mentally ill.’ Ten years later another Vienna-based Sigmund, future author of the Traumdeutung, used it for measuring the impact of cocaine on what he called the ‘psychological time of reaction’.


ISSN 1866-4784: reference - xlink