Siegmund Mayer was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 physiologist and histologist.

Mayer was born in Bechtheim

Bechtheim

Bechtheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

 in Rhenish Hesse. He studied at the Universities of Heidelberg, Giessen and Tübingen, where in 1865 he obtained his doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

. He subsequently worked with Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821–1894) in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (1816–1895) and Julius Friedrich Cohnheim (1839–1884) in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, and with Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke

Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke

Ernst Wilhelm Ritter von Brücke was a German physician and physiologist.He was born Ernst Wilhelm Brücke in Berlin. He graduated in medicine at University of Berlin in 1842, the following year he became esearch assistant to Johannes Peter Müller...

 (1819–1892) in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

In 1869 he was habilitated for physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 at Vienna, and during the next year became Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering's

Ewald Hering

Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering was a German physiologist who did much research into color vision and spatial perception...

 (1834–1918) assistant in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. In 1872 he became an associate professor and in 1887 a full professor. From 1880 he was director at the newly founded institute

Institute

An institute is a permanent organizational body created for a certain purpose. Often it is a research organization created to do research on specific topics...

 of histology

Histology

Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues of plants and animals. It is performed by examining cells and tissues commonly by sectioning and staining; followed by examination under a light microscope or electron microscope...

.

Mayer made several important contributions particularly concerning the physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 of the heart

Heart

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

 and vessels

Blood vessel

The blood vessels are the part of the circulatory system that transports blood throughout the body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries, which carry the blood away from the heart; the capillaries, which enable the actual exchange of water and chemicals between the blood and...

, respiration

Respiration (physiology)

'In physiology, respiration is defined as the transport of oxygen from the outside air to the cells within tissues, and the transport of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction...

 and intestines. He was one of the first to describe chromaffin cells in the sympathetic nerve, and with Ewald Hering and Ludwig Traube

Ludwig Traube (physician)

Ludwig Traube was a German physician and co-founder of the experimental pathology in Germany.-Biography:...

, his name is associated with "Traube–Hering–Mayer waves", which deal with rhythmic variations in arterial blood pressure

Blood pressure

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the arterial pressure of the systemic circulation. During each heartbeat, BP varies...

.

In addition to his scholarly papers published in scientific journal

Scientific journal

In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...

s, he made contributions to Salomon Stricker's

Salomon Stricker

Salomon Stricker – 2 April 1898) was an Austrian pathologist and histologist who was born in Waag-Neustadtl, which is now part of Slovakia. He studied at the University of Vienna, and subsequently became a research assistant at the Institute of Physiology under Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke...

 (1834–1898) Handbuch der Lehre von den Geweben des Menschen und der Thiere (1872) and to Ludimar Hermann's

Ludimar Hermann

Ludimar Hermann was a German physiologist and speech scientist who used the Edison phonograph to test theories of vowel production, particularly those of Robert Willis and Charles Wheatstone. He coined the word formant, a term of importance in modern acoustic phonetics...

(1838–1914) Handbuch der Physiologie (1879). He was also author of Histologisches Taschenbuch (1887).

Mayer died September 1910 in Prague.

Publications

• Studien zur Physiologie des Herzens und der Blutgefässe 6. Abhandlung: Über spontane Blutdruckschwankungen. Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Classe, Anatomie, 1876, 74: 281–307