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PALLAS, PETER SIMON (1741–1811)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 638 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PALLAS, See also:PETER See also:SIMON (1741–1811) , See also:German naturalist and traveller, was See also:born in See also:Berlin on the 22nd of See also:September 1741, the son of Simon Pallas, surgeon in the Prussian See also:army and See also:professor of See also:surgery in Berlin. He was intended for the medical profession, and studied at the See also:universities of Berlin, See also:Halle, See also:Gottingen and See also:Leiden. He See also:early displayed a strong leaning towards natural See also:history. In 1761 he went to See also:England, where for a See also:year he devoted himself to a thorough study of the collections and to a See also:geological investigation of See also:part of the See also:coast; and at the See also:age of twenty-three he was elected a See also:foreign member of the Royal Society. He then spent some See also:time in See also:Holland, and the results of his investigations appeared at the See also:Hague in 1766 in his Elenchus Zoophytorum and Miscellanea Zoologica, and in 1767–1804 in his Spicilegia Zoologica (Berlin). In 1768 he accepted the invitation of the empress Catharine II. to fill the professorship of natural history in the Imperial See also:Academy of See also:Science, St See also:Petersburg, and in the same year he was appointed naturalist to a scientific expedition through See also:Russia and See also:Siberia, the immediate See also:object of which was the observation of the transit of -See also:Venus in 1769. In this leisurely See also:journey Pallas went by Kasan to the See also:Caspian, spent some time among the Kalmucks, crossed the Urals to See also:Tobolsk, visited the See also:Altai mountains, traced the Irtish to Kolyvan, went on to See also:Tomsk and the See also:Yenisei, crossed See also:Lake See also:Baikal, and extended his journey to the frontiers of See also:China. Few explorations have been so fruitful as this six years' journey. The leading results were given in his Reiser; See also:lurch verschiedene Provinzen See also:des riissischen Reichs (3 vols., St Petersburg, 1771–1776), richly illustrated with coloured plates. A See also:French See also:translation in 1788–1793, in 8 vols., with 9 vols. of plates, contained, in addition to the narrative, the natural history results of the expedition; and an See also:English translation in three volumes appeared in 1812. As See also:special results of this See also:great journey may be mentioned Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten fiber See also:die mongolischen Volkerschaften (2 vols., St Petersburg, 1776-1802); Novae See also:species quadrupedum, 1778-1779; Pallas's contributions to the See also:dictionary of See also:languages of the See also:Russian See also:empire, 1786-1789; Icones insectorum, praesertim Rossiae Siberiaeque peculiarium, 1781-1806; Zoographia rossoasiatica (3 vols., 1831); besides many special papers in the Transactions of the See also:academies of St Petersburg and Berlin. The empress bought Pallas's natural history collections for 20,000 roubles, 5000 more than he asked for them, and allowed him to keep them for See also:life.

He spent a considerable time in 1793-1794 in visiting the See also:

southern provinces of Russia, and was so greatly attracted by the See also:Crimea that he determined to take up his See also:residence there. The empress gave him a large See also:estate at Simpheropol and 1o,000 roubles to assist in equipping a See also:house. Though disappointed with the Crimea as a See also:place of residence, Pallas continued to live there, devoted to See also:constant See also:research, especially in See also:botany, till the See also:death of his second wife in 181o, when he removed to Berlin, where he died on the 8th of September 1811. The results of his journey in southern Russia were given in his Bemerkungen auf einer Reise durch die sitdlichen Statthalterschaften des russischen Reichs (See also:Leipzig, 1799-18o1; English translation by Blagdon, vols. v.-viii. of See also:Modern Discoveries, 18o2, and another in 2 vols., 1812). Pallas also edited and contributed to Neue nordische Beitrage zur physikal schen Erd- and Volkerbeschreibung, Naturgeschichte, and Oekonomie (1781-1796), published Illustrations plantarum imperfecte vel nondum cognitarum (Leipzig, 1803), and contributed to See also:Buffon's Natural History a See also:paper on the formation of mountains. See the See also:essay of Rudolphi in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy for 1812 ; See also:Cuvier's Eloge in his Recueil des iloges historiques, vol. ii.; and the Life in Jardine's Naturalists' Library, vol. iv. (Edin., 1843).

End of Article: PALLAS, PETER SIMON (1741–1811)

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