Editing Ernst Mach (section)

==Physiology==
In 1873, independently of each other,{{sfn|Hawkins|Schacht|2005}} Mach and the physiologist and physician [[Josef Breuer]] discovered how the [[sense of balance]] (i.e., the perception of the head's imbalance) functions, tracing its management by information the brain receives from the movement of [[Endolymph|a fluid]] in the [[semicircular canal]]s of the [[Vestibular system|inner ear]]. That the sense of balance depends on the three semicircular canals was discovered in 1870 by the physiologist [[Friedrich Goltz]], but Goltz did not discover how the balance-sensing apparatus functions. Mach devised a swivel chair to test his theories, and Floyd Ratliff has suggested that this experiment may have paved the way to Mach's critique of a physical conception of absolute space and motion.{{sfn|Ratliff|1975|pp=}}