Antoine Frédéric Spring (8 April 1814 in

Gerolsbach Gerolsbach is a municipality in the district of Pfaffenhofen in Bavaria in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

– 17 January 1872) was a German-born, Belgian physician and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He studied botany and medicine at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, obtaining his PhD in 1835 and his medical doctorate during the following year. From 1839 to 1872 he was a professor at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

, initially in the fields of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

and

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

, later teaching classes in

pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

and

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

. As a botanist he specialized in research of

Lycopodiaceae The Lycopodiaceae (class Lycopodiopsida, order Lycopodiales) are an old family of vascular plants, including all of the core clubmosses and firmosses, comprising 17 accepted genera and about 500 known species. This family originated about 380 mi ...

(clubmosses) and

Selaginellaceae ''Selaginella'', also known as spikemosses or lesser clubmosses, is a genus of lycophyte. It is usually treated as the only genus in the family Selaginellaceae, with over 750 known species. This family is distinguished from Lycopodiaceae (the ...

(spikemosses), and was the binomial author of numerous species from both families.IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Spring His personal

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

is now kept in the herbarium at the University of Liège. His son

Walthère Victor Spring Walthère Victor Spring (6 March 1848 – 17 July 1911) was a Belgian experimental chemist and a professor at the University of Liège who contributed to ideas on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. As a physical chemist he ...

became a chemist who contributed to ideas on the Greenhouse Effect, as well as to physical and organic chemistry.

References

Les Botanistes liégeois et l'Emulation
(translated biography) 1814 births 1872 deaths Immigrants to Belgium People from Pfaffenhofen (district) 19th-century Belgian botanists Academic staff of the University of Liège {{Belgium-botanist-stub