Biologists 18th century
Giovanni Battista Brocchi was an Italian mineralogist, geologist and paleontologist.
Brocchi studied law at the University of Padua, but was seriously interested in natural sciences and mineralogy. In 1802, Brocchi became a teacher of natural history at the Brescia Gymnasium. Appointment in 1808 as inspector of mines in Milan gave him the opportunity to travel extensively in Italy, making extensive notes and collecting numerous samples. The fruits of these labors appeared in various publications, notably his "Treatise mineralogical and chemical on the iron mines of the department of Mella" (1808). He then obtained a position as inspector of mining in the newly created kingdom of Italy.
In 1811 Brocchi wrote a valuable essay entitled "Mineralogical Memoirs on the Fassa Valley in the Tyrol." He made his first extensive exploration of central Italy in 1811-1812, witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius, and was able to compare the condition of its crater before and after the eruption. But his most important work is Fossils of the Sub-Apennines with geological observations on the Apennines and adjacent soil (1814), which contains precise details of the structure of the Apennine ridge and an account of the fossilization of Italian Tertiary strata in comparison with existing species. Brocchi also wrote several significant works on biology.
In the fall of 1822 he sailed from Trieste to Egypt, whence he made excursions up the Nile and into Syria and Palestine. In 1826 he contracted the bubonic plague, of which he died. His last journals and collections are preserved at the Museo Civico in Bassano. In all, Brocchi published five voluminous books and about seventy articles in various journals.
Pieter Cramer was a Dutch merchant and traveler and entomologist.
A cloth and wool merchant, Cramer traveled the world and amassed an extensive collection of sea shells, fossils, and various insects. Many colorful butterflies and moths were collected in Surinam, Ceylon, Sierra Leone, and the Dutch East Indies - countries with which Holland had colonial or trade ties. Kramer hired the artist Gerrit Wartenaar Lambertz to sketch butterfly specimens collected not only by him but also by other Dutch collectors. The illustrations were very numerous, and Kramer, together with the naturalist and entomologist Caspar Stoll, decided to publish them.
The resulting encyclopedia, De Uitlandsche Kapellen, is one of the key works in the history of entomology. The scales from Asia, Africa and the Americas are depicted in life-size and hand-colored engravings. It was the first book on exotic butterflies to use the new system of animal classification developed by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Over 1,658 species of butterflies were described and illustrated on 400 plates. Many species were depicted and named for the first time.
Johann Anton Güldenstädt was a Russian scientist, naturalist and traveler born of Baltic Germans.
Born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, Güldenstädt studied pharmacy, botany and natural history in Berlin from 1763. At the age of 22, he earned a doctorate in medicine from the University of Frankfurt. The following year he became a member of an expedition of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences sent by Catherine the Great to explore the southern borders of the Russian Empire.
Güldenstädt traveled through Ukraine and the Astrakhan region, as well as the North Caucasus and Georgia. In March 1775 the scientist returned to St. Petersburg. The results of this expedition were published after his premature death from typhoid fever at the age of 36.
This expedition made a great contribution in the fields of biology, geology, geography and especially linguistics. Guldenstedt made detailed notes on the languages of the region. Güldenstädt's materials are still constantly consulted by linguists. Dictionaries of one and a half dozen languages and dialects of the Caucasian peoples compiled by him 250 years ago serve as a valuable basis for research in linguistics and toponymy. He was one of the first European scholars to study the life and culture of the Kumyks, Ingush, Ossetians, Chechens and other North Caucasian peoples.
Güldenstädt was also the first to describe and characterize the soils, vegetation and fauna of the South Russian steppes, and one of the first to explain the origin of black soil.
Adrian Hardy Haworth was a British scientist of entomology, botany and carcinology, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society.
Haworth made significant contributions to botany and entomology, describing many species of plants and insects. He summarized and published the results of his entomological collections in the extensive Lepidoptera Britannica (1803-1828), which was the first major monograph on the scales of Britain and one of the most authoritative works of the 19th century. Haworth was also a carcinologist and specialized in shrimps.
François Levaillant was a French ornithologist, traveler and writer.
Levaillant was born in Dutch Guiana, where his father was French consul. He returned with his family to France, where he eventually became a dealer in natural history specimens. At the age of 27, trained as an ornithologist, he traveled to southern Africa with the Dutch East India Company to collect specimens for his collection. Levaillant was one of the first naturalist explorers to venture into uncharted and dangerous Africa to see and study birds in their natural habitat.
Returning to France in 1785 after several years of traveling, he began writing ornithological works based on his diaries. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets (Natural History of Parrots) was published between 1801 and 1805, and his six-volume History of the Nature of Africa was published between 1799 and 1808. Levaillant also wrote the popular book Le Vaillant's Voyage to the Interior of Africa and others. He was one of the first Europeans to make ethnographic observations, empathizing with African peoples and treating them as equals.
Johann Friedrich Meckel the Younger was a German anatomist, biologist and professor of anatomy.
Meckel came from a family of physicians; his grandfather and father were physicians and anatomists and had their own anatomical museum at home. Meckel studied medicine at the universities of Halle and Göttingen, writing his doctoral dissertation on congenital anomalies of the heart. As a pathologist, he specialized in the study of congenital malformations and aspects of lung and blood vessel development. He also described Meckel's diverticulum, which he discovered during a pathologic examination, and became the founder of the science of teratology.
After Napoleon's occupation, the University of Halle reopened in May 1808, and Meckel was appointed professor of surgery, normal and pathological anatomy, and obstetrics. He taught throughout his life, continued to conduct research in pathology, and collected specimens for his collection. The scientist was the author of numerous articles and several multi-volume treatises, including one on pathologic anatomy and an atlas depicting human anomalies. His principal labors were devoted to the comparative morphology of vertebrates. In 1810 he completed the translation of Cuvier's (1769-1832) five-volume Leçons d'anatomie Comparée from French into German.
Meckel was a member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina," a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and a foreign member of the Royal Society of London.
Lawrence Rawstorne was a British naturalist writer.
He is best known for his treatise Gamonia: or the Art of Preserving Game, which is devoted exclusively to the subject of pheasant breeding, concealed shooting, and the management of woodlands for the specific purpose of preserving game. The book contains 15 hand-colored aquatint plates by and drawing by J. T. Rawlins and was published in London in 1837.
Jacob Christian Schäffer was a German inventor, naturalist, entomologist and mycologist.
Schäffer was a very versatile scientist. He is best known for his work in mycology (the study of fungi), but his most important publication was undoubtedly a book on daphnia or water fleas.
Schäffer also published reference books on pharmaceuticals and medicinal herbs. He conducted experiments on electricity, colors, and optics, and invented the manufacture of prisms and lenses. He invented the washing machine, designs for which he published in 1767, and studied ways to improve paper production.
Schäffer was a professor at the Universities of Wittenberg and Tübingen, a member of the Royal Society of London, and a correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences.
Caspar Stoll was a Dutch naturalist and entomologist of German descent.
Caspar Stoll became known for his work on the historical illustrated encyclopedia De Uitlandsche Kapellen, a butterfly encyclopedia started by merchant and entomologist Peter Cramer. Butterflies and moths were collected by him on his travels in Surinam, Ceylon, Sierra Leone, and the Dutch East Indies, countries with which Holland had colonial or trade ties. Stoll continued and completed the publication of volumes of this work after Kramer's death. He also published several of his own works on other groups of insects.
Antonio Vallisneri the Elder was an Italian naturalist, physician and geologist, collector, and member of the Royal Society of London.
He studied in Bologna, Venice, Padua and Parma and headed the chair first of practical medicine and then of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua. In addition to medicine, Vallisneri conducted important research in the natural sciences. In particular, in the field of geology, he is credited with recognizing the organic nature of fossils unrelated to the Great Flood, which contributed to the end of centuries-old disputes. His observations on the water cycle, thermal waters and some mines in the Apennines were also important.
Vallisneri was interested in all branches of the natural sciences, collecting numerous collections of animals, minerals, and other natural objects during his lifetime. The scientist compiled a brief catalog of his collection, which was published in 1733 by his son, Antonio Vallisneri, Jr. The Vallisneri Museum included naturalistic finds, anatomical preparations, medical and scientific instruments, antiques, and exotics from various cultures and eras as well as geographical origins. In 1734, his son donated this museum to the University of Padua, initiating the creation of a general museum for the university.
Antonio Vallisneri Jr. followed in his father's footsteps and for many years held the position of professor of natural history at the University of Padua. He devoted his life to collecting and processing his father's writings and tidying up his library, which contained about a thousand volumes. These were donated to the University Library in Padua.
Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. Van Leeuwenhoek is best known for his pioneering work in microscopy and for his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline.
Johannes Eusebius Voet was a Dutch physician, poet, entomologist and illustrator.
Voet worked as a physician in Dordrecht and had a large collection of insects and shells. Studying beetles and other insects, he wrote Catalogus Systematicus Coleopterorum, Systematische naamlijst van dat geslacht der Insecten dat men Torren noemt, which was published in 1804-1806. It was one of the best entomological works published in the Netherlands. It contained numerous original hand-colored engravings, many of them by C.F.C. Kleemann, Rösel's son-in-law.
Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-born American naturalist, ornithologist, illustrator, and poet.
Wilson emigrated from Scotland to America in 1794, spent several years teaching in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and then became interested in studying native birds. He traveled extensively in the American wilderness and captured and studied over 300 different birds, including several previously unknown. He made his own drawings and detailed descriptions, supported by reading scientific literature.
The results of his research were published under the title American Ornithology in eight volumes beginning in 1808. The ninth volume was published after his death in August 1813. One of the first subscribers was President Thomas Jefferson. Alexander Wilson was a member of the Society of Artists of the United States and the American Philosophical Society. The Wilson Ornithological Society is named in his honor, and a monument is erected in Abbey Close, Paisley. Several species of birds are named in his honor.
