Karl Eichwald

Karl Eduard von Eichwald (Russian: Эдуард Иванович Эйхвальд, Eduard Ivanovich Eykhvald; 4 July 1795, in Mitau, Courland Governorate – 10 November 1876, in Saint Petersburg) was a Baltic German geologist, physician, and naturalist, who worked in Russia.

Karl Eichwald
Karl Eichwald
Born4 July 1795
Jelgava (German: Mitau), present-day Latvia
Died10 November 1876 (1876-11-11) (aged 81)
St. Petersburg, Russia
NationalityBaltic German
CitizenshipRussian Empire
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
Medicine

Career

Eichwald was a Baltic German born at Mitau in Courland Governorate. He became a doctor of medicine and professor of zoology in Kazan in 1823; four years later professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at Vilnius; in 1838 professor of zoology, mineralogy and medicine at St. Petersburg; and finally, professor of palaeontology in the institute of mines in that city.

He travelled much in the Russian Empire, and was a keen observer of its natural history and geology. He died at St. Petersburg.

Eichwald was a supporter of Darwinism.[1]

Works

His published works include Reise auf dem Caspischen Meere und in den Caucasus, 2 vols. (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1834-1838); Die Urwelt Russlands (St Petersburg, 1840-1845); Le Lethaea Rossica, ou Paléontologie de la Russie, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1852-1868), with Atlases.

In the scientific field of herpetology he described several new species of reptiles.[2]

His work is not devoid of serious shortcomings, dependent in part on the nature of the compiler. In old age, few self-confident scientists are willing to admit their mistakes. Part of the errors were because of low-quality material, which had been gathered for him by often inexperienced or illiterate people. Therefore, the conclusions are not always trustworthy.

gollark: Not length-terminated?
gollark: Length-*prefixed*?
gollark: I feel much more comfortable with pythonous longterm things.
gollark: It's entirely possible that sensibly done asynchronous python code would be faster.
gollark: I always just use preeeeeexisting HTTP libraries, due to bee.

See also

Notes

  1. Corsi, Pietro. (2005). Before Darwin: Transformist Concepts in European Natural History. Journal of the History of Biology 38: 67-83.
  2. The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  3. IPNI.  Eichw.

References

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