The final tribute of E. G. Boring to G. T. Fechner: Concerning the date October 22, 1850.

E. G. Boring, the preeminent historian of experimental psychology, wrote a letter shortly before his death in 1968 concerning G. T. Fechner's first insight into the fundamental principle of psychophysics on October 22, 1850. The celebration of that date at Harvard, more or less annually, and the establishment there of the first chair of psychophysics are recounted in the letter and interwoven with Boring's own birthday (October 23). The letter is published here as a minor contribution to the centennial of Fechner's death (November 18, 1887). That event was scheduled for celebration at Leipzig University by a three-day symposium in June devoted to Fechner's founding of psychophysics and, hence, of experimental psychology. Boring's later skepticism about the validity of certain landmark dates in scientific history was meant to deemphasize the contribution of the individual and to strengthen the role of the impersonal Zeitgeist. But it appears that this skepticism may have arisen, in part, from Boring's recognition of his subjectivity in playfully confounding Fechner's date of insight with his own birthday. Overgeneralization may have followed the fun. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)