Name Ernst Richard | ||
Died July 22, 1921, Konstanz, Germany | ||
Ernst Julius Richard Ewald (14 February 1855 – 22 July 1921) was a German physiologist born in Berlin. He was a younger brother to gastroenterologist Carl Anton Ewald (1845-1915).
In 1880, after finishing his studies in mathematics, physics and medicine, he became an assistant to physiologist Friedrich Goltz (1834-1902) at the University of Strasbourg. In 1900 he succeeded Goltz as chair of physiology at Strasbourg, a position he maintained until 1918.
Ewald is best remembered for his research of the vestibular system of the inner ear, that largely involved experiments performed on the semicircular canal system of pigeons. From these studies the so-called "Ewald laws" are derived, which deal with the effects of endolymph motion on body, head and eye movements and also on the phenomena of excitation-inhibition asymmetries in the vestibular system.
In 1892 he was given an award by the Paris Academy of Sciences for his monograph "Physiologische Untersuchungen über das Endorgan des Nervus octavus".