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SCHEUCHZER, JOHANN JAKOB (1672-1733)
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See also:SCHEUCHZER, JOHANN See also:JAKOB (1672-1733) , Swiss savant, was See also:born at See also:Zurich on the 2nd of See also:August 1672. The son of the See also:senior See also:town physician (or Archiater) of Zurich, he received his See also:education in that See also:place, and in 1692 went to the university of See also:Altdorf nearNuremberg, being intended for the medical profession. See also:Early in 1694 he took his degree of See also:doctor in See also:medicine at the university of See also:Utrecht, and then returned to Altdorf to See also:complete his mathematical studies. He went back to Zurich in 1696, and was made junior town physician (or Poliater), with the promise of the professorship of See also:mathematics; this he obtained in 1710, being promoted to the See also:chair of physics, with the See also:office of senior town physician, in See also:January 1733, a few months before his See also:death on the 23rd of See also:June. His published See also:works (apart from numerous articles) were estimated at See also:thirty-four in number. His See also:historical writings are mostly still in MS. The more important of his published writings relate either to his scientific observations (all branches) or to his journeys, in the course of which he collected materials for these scientific works. In the former See also:category are his Beschreibung der Naturgeschichte See also:des Schweitzerlandes (3 vols., Zurich, 1706-1708, the 3rd See also:volume containing an See also:account in See also:German of his See also:journey of 1705; a new edition of this See also:book and, with important omissions, of his 1723 See also:work, was issued, in 2 vols., in 1746, by J. G. Sulzer, under the See also:title of Naturgeschichte des Schweitzerlandes sammt seinen Reisen fiber See also:die schweitzerischen Gebfrge), and his Helvetiae historia naturalis See also:oder Naturhistorie des Schweitzerlandes (published in 3 vols., at Zurich, 1716-1718, and reissued in the same See also:form in 1752, under the German title just given). The first of the three parts of the last-named work deals with the Swiss mountains (summing up all that was then known about them, and serving as a See also:link between See also:Simler's work of 1574 and See also:Gruner's of 176o), the second with the Swiss See also:rivers, lakes and See also:mineral.See also:baths, and the third with Swiss See also:meteorology and See also:geology. Scheuchzer-'s works, as issued in 1746 and in 1752, formed (with See also:Tschudi's Chronicum Helveticum) one of the See also:chief See also:sources for See also:Schiller's See also:play of Wilhelm Tell (1804). In 1704 Scheuchzer was elected a F.R.S.; he published many scientific notes and papers in the Philosophical Transactions for 1706-1707, 1709 and 1727-1728. In the second category are his Itinera alpina tria (made in 1702-1704), which was published in See also:London in 1708, and dedicated to the Royal Society, while the plates illustrating it were executed at the expense of various See also:fellows of the society, including the See also:president, See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton (whose imprimatur appears on the title-See also:page), Hans See also:Sloane, See also:Dean See also:Aldrich, Humfrey Wanley, &c. The See also:text is written in Latin, as is that of the definitive work describing his travels (with which is incorporated the 1708 volume) that appeared in 1723 at See also:Leiden, in four See also:quarto volumes, under the title of Itinera per Helvetiae alpinas regiones facia annis 1702-1711. These journeys led Scheuchzer to almost every See also:part of See also:Switzerland, particularly its central and eastern districts. Apropos of his visit (1705) to the See also:Rhone See also:glacier, he inserts a full account of the other Swiss glaciers, as far as they were then known, while in 1706, after mentioning certain wonders to be seen in the museum at See also:Lucerne, he adds reports by' men of See also:good faith who had seen dragons in Switzerland. He doubts their existence, but illustrates the reports by fanciful representations of dragons, which have led some See also:modern writers to depreciate his merits as a traveller and naturalist, for the belief in dragons was then widely spread. In 1712 he published a See also:map of Switzerland in four sheets (See also:scale 1/290,000), of which the See also:east portion (based on his See also:personal observations) is far the most accurate, though the map as a whole was the best map of Switzerland till the end of the 18th See also:century. At the end of his 1723 book he gives a full See also:list (covering 27 4t0 pages) of his writings from 1694 to 1721. See F. X. Hoeherl, J. J. Scheuchzer, der Begrander d. phys. Geographie d. Hochgebirges (See also:Munich, 1901), a useful little pamphlet, conveniently summarizing Scheuchzer's scientific views. (W. A. B. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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