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KAEMPFER, ENGELBRECHT (1651-1716)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 627 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KAEMPFER, ENGELBRECHT (1651-1716) , See also:German traveller and physician, was See also:born on the 16th of See also:November 1651 at See also:Lemgo in See also:Lippe-Detmold, See also:Westphalia, where his See also:father was a pastor. He studied at See also:Hameln, See also:Luneburg, See also:Hamburg, See also:Lubeck and See also:Danzig, and after graduating Ph.D. at See also:Cracow, spent four years at See also:Konigsberg in See also:Prussia, studying See also:medicine and natural See also:science. In 1681 he visited See also:Upsala in See also:Sweden, where he was offered inducements to See also:settle; but his See also:desire for See also:foreign travel led him to become secretary to the See also:embassy which See also:Charles XI. sent through See also:Russia to See also:Persia in 1683. He reached Persia by way of See also:Moscow, Kazan and See also:Astrakhan, landing at Nizabad in See also:Daghestan after a voyage in the See also:Caspian; from See also:Shemakha in See also:Shirvan he made an expedition to the See also:Baku See also:peninsula, being perhaps the first See also:modern scientist to visit these See also:fields of " eternal See also:fire." In 1684 he arrived in See also:Isfahan, then the See also:Persian See also:capital. When after a stay of more than a See also:year the See also:Swedish embassy prepared to return, Kaempfer joined the See also:fleet of the Dutch See also:East See also:India See also:Company in the Persian Gulf as See also:chief surgeon, and in spite of See also:fever caught at Bander Abbasi he found opportunity to see something of See also:Arabia and of many of the western See also:coast-lands of India. In See also:September 1689 he reached See also:Batavia; spent the following See also:winter in studying Javanese natural See also:history; and in May 1690 set out for See also:Japan as physician to the embassy sent yearly to that See also:country by the Dutch. The See also:ship in which he sailed touched at See also:Siam, whose capital he visited; and in September 1690 he arrived at See also:Nagasaki, the only See also:Japanese See also:port then open to foreigners. Kaempfer stayed two years in Japan, during which he twice visited See also:Tokyo. His adroitness, insinuating See also:manners and medical skill overcame the habitual See also:jealousy and reticence of the natives, and enabled him to elicit much valuable See also:information. In November 1692 he See also:left Japan for See also:Java and See also:Europe, and in See also:October 1693 he landed at See also:Amsterdam. Receiving the degree of M.D. at See also:Leiden, he settled down in his native See also:city, becoming also physician to the See also:count of Lippe. He died at Lemgo on the 2nd of November 1716.

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work Kaempfer lived to publish was Amoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum fasciculi V. (Lemgo, 1712), a selection from his papers giving results of his invaluable observations in See also:Georgia, Persia and Japan. At his See also:death the unpublished See also:manuscripts were See also:purchased by See also:Sir Hans See also:Sloane, and conveyed to See also:England. Among them was a History of Japan, translated from the See also:manuscript into See also:English by J. G. See also:Scheuchzer and published at See also:London, in 2 vols., in 1727. The See also:original German has never been published, the extant German version being taken from the English. Besides Japanese history, this See also:book contains a description of the See also:political, social and See also:physical See also:state of the country in the 17th See also:century. For upwards of a See also:hundred years it remained the chief source of information for the See also:general reader, and is still not wholly obsolete. A See also:life of the author is prefixed to the History.

End of Article: KAEMPFER, ENGELBRECHT (1651-1716)

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