Purkyně was born in Bohemia, which was then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now it is in the Czech Republic. In 1818, he graduated with a degree in medicine, and was appointed Professor of Physiology. He published two volumes which contributed to experimental psychology. He created the world's first Department of Physiology at the University of Breslau in Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland), and the world's first official physiology laboratory.