Johann Georg Gmelin
Encyclopedia
Johann Georg Gmelin was a German
naturalist
, botanist and geographer
.
, the son of an professor
at the University of Tübingen. He was a gifted child and begun attending university lectures at the age of 14. In 1727, he graduated with a medical
degree at the age of 18. He then travelled to St Petersburg and obtained a fellowship at the Academy of Sciences
in 1728. He lectured at the university from 1730, and in the following year was appointed professor of chemistry
and natural history
.
At his suggestion, Johann Amman
left Hans Sloane
in London to take up a post in St Petersburg. The final two volumes of Johann Christian Buxbaum
's (1693–1730) Centuria were published posthumously by Gmelin.
’s Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733–43). During the early part of the expedition - leaving St Petersburg in August 1733 - he was accompanied by the young student Stepan Krasheninnikov
. They travelled together through the Urals
and western Siberia
to Yeniseysk
. He described the position of the Yenisey river as a boundary between Europe
and Asia
and participated in measuring the lowest temperature
ever recorded at Yeniseysk
. He was also the first person to measure the fact that the level of the Caspian Sea
was below that of the Mediterranean Sea
. He eventually reached Bering
’s headquarters at Yakutsk
in September 1736. Unfortunately, Gmelin's residence burned on November 8, destroying all his natural history
collections and notes plus part of his library. The subsequent summer, he made as many re-collections of specimens as possible to replace the loss. His Flora Sibirica (1747–1769) was based on his observations and collections. It contains descriptions of 1178 species, 294 of which ae illustrated. His nephew Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin
assisted his in editing the final two volumes. A fifth volume of Flora Sibirica, mainly on cryptogams was written by Stepan Krasheninnikov
, but was never printed. Gmelin also described the journey in his Reise durch Sibirien von dem Jahr 1733 bis 1743 (1751–1752).
of medicine
and, in 1751, director of the university's botanic garden
. His travel description was published there. It was translated to French
and Dutch
, but not to Russian
, "because it contained uncomplimentary observations and comments on Russians".
Gmelin was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
in 1749.
The plant genus
Gmelina
(Lamiaceae
) and several dozen plant and animal species are named after him.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, botanist and geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
.
Early life and education
Gmelin was born in TübingenTübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
, the son of an professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at the University of Tübingen. He was a gifted child and begun attending university lectures at the age of 14. In 1727, he graduated with a medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
degree at the age of 18. He then travelled to St Petersburg and obtained a fellowship at the Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
in 1728. He lectured at the university from 1730, and in the following year was appointed professor of chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
.
At his suggestion, Johann Amman
Johann Amman
Johann Amman, Johannes Amman or Иоганн Амман , was a Swiss-Russian botanist, a member of the Royal Society and professor of botany at the Russian Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg...
left Hans Sloane
Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...
in London to take up a post in St Petersburg. The final two volumes of Johann Christian Buxbaum
Johann Christian Buxbaum
Johann Christian Buxbaum , was a German physician, botanist and traveller.He was born in Merseburg and studied medicine at the Universities of Leipzig, Wittenberg, Jena, and Leyden....
's (1693–1730) Centuria were published posthumously by Gmelin.
The Second Kamchatka Expedition
Gmelin was elected one out of three professors to join Vitus BeringVitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
’s Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733–43). During the early part of the expedition - leaving St Petersburg in August 1733 - he was accompanied by the young student Stepan Krasheninnikov
Stepan Krasheninnikov
Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov was a Russian explorer of Siberia, naturalist and geographer who gave the first full description of Kamchatka in the early 18th century. He was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1745...
. They travelled together through the Urals
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
and western Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
to Yeniseysk
Yeniseysk
Yeniseysk is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 .Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei River. It played an important role in Russian colonization of East Siberia in the 17th–18th centuries...
. He described the position of the Yenisey river as a boundary between Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and participated in measuring the lowest temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
ever recorded at Yeniseysk
Yeniseysk
Yeniseysk is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 .Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei River. It played an important role in Russian colonization of East Siberia in the 17th–18th centuries...
. He was also the first person to measure the fact that the level of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
was below that of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. He eventually reached Bering
Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
’s headquarters at Yakutsk
Yakutsk
With a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
in September 1736. Unfortunately, Gmelin's residence burned on November 8, destroying all his natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
collections and notes plus part of his library. The subsequent summer, he made as many re-collections of specimens as possible to replace the loss. His Flora Sibirica (1747–1769) was based on his observations and collections. It contains descriptions of 1178 species, 294 of which ae illustrated. His nephew Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin
Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin
Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin was a German physician, botanist and explorer.- Background :Gmelin was born at Tübingen in a well known family of naturalists. His father was Johann Conrad Gmelin, an apothecary and surgeon. His uncle was Johann Georg Gmelin...
assisted his in editing the final two volumes. A fifth volume of Flora Sibirica, mainly on cryptogams was written by Stepan Krasheninnikov
Stepan Krasheninnikov
Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov was a Russian explorer of Siberia, naturalist and geographer who gave the first full description of Kamchatka in the early 18th century. He was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1745...
, but was never printed. Gmelin also described the journey in his Reise durch Sibirien von dem Jahr 1733 bis 1743 (1751–1752).
Later life
Gmelin returned to the University of Tübingen in 1747 and became professorProfessor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and, in 1751, director of the university's botanic garden
Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen
The Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen, also known as the Botanischer Garten Tübingen or the Neuer Botanischer Garten Tübingen, is a botanical garden and arboretum maintained by the University of Tübingen...
. His travel description was published there. It was translated to French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, but not to Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, "because it contained uncomplimentary observations and comments on Russians".
Gmelin was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
in 1749.
The plant genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Gmelina
Gmelina
Gmelina is a genus of plant in family Lamiaceae. It was named in honour of botanist Johann Georg Gmelin.Species include:* Gmelina arborea* Gmelina asiatica* Gmelina fasciculiflora - Northern White Beech, Australia...
(Lamiaceae
Lamiaceae
The mints, taxonomically known as Lamiaceae or Labiatae, are a family of flowering plants. They have traditionally been considered closely related to Verbenaceae, but in the 1990s, phylogenetic studies suggested that many genera classified in Verbenaceae belong instead in Lamiaceae...
) and several dozen plant and animal species are named after him.