Arnold Lang (18 June 1855 – 30 November 1914) was a Swiss naturalist, a

comparative anatomist Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...

and student of German

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...

Biography

In March 1876 he earned his PhD from the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, and two months later became habilitated as a

privat-docent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

. From 1878 to 1885 he was stationed at the Zoological Station in Naples, where he conducted research on wildlife native to the

Gulf of Naples The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It i ...

. In 1889 he became a professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

and the '' Eidgenössische Polytechnikum'' as well as director of two institutions' zoological collections. From 1898 to 1900 he served as

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

at the University of Zurich.Arnold Lang (1855 up to 1914)
at ETH Bibliotek In the autumn of 1891, a European fellowship for the best graduate in class enabled American experimental biologist

Lilian Vaughan Morgan Lilian Vaughan Morgan (''née'' Sampson; July 7, 1870 – December 6, 1952) was an American experimental biologist who made seminal contributions to the genetics of the fruit fly, ''Drosophila melanogaster'', which cemented its status as one ...

to go to Europe and study muscles in

chiton Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora (), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as gumboots or sea cradles or coat-of-mail s ...

s at the

with Arnold Lang. Norwegian biologist

Kristine Bonnevie Kristine Elisabeth Heuch Bonnevie (8 October 1872 – 30 August 1948) was a Norwegian biologist, Norway's first female professor, women's rights activist and politician for the Free-minded Liberal Party. Her fields of research were cytology, genet ...

studied under Arnold Lang in Zürich in the years 1898-99. He also taught zoologist Emily Arnesen and philosopher

Heinrich Schmidt Heinrich Schmidt may refer to: People * Heinrich Schmidt (composer) (1904-1988), Austrian composer * Heinrich Schmidt (philosopher) (1874–1935), German archivist, naturalist and philosopher professor * Heinrich Schmidt (politician) (1902–1960), ...

Works

By way of a suggestion from Ernst Haeckel, he published a translation of

Jean Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolog ...

's ''Philosophie zoologique'' into German (1876). From his research at

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, he published in 1884 a massive monograph on

Polycladida The Polycladida represents a highly diverse clade of free-living marine flatworms. They are known from the littoral to the Sublittoral zone, sublittoral zone (extending to the deep hot vents), and many species are common from coral reefs. Only a ...

(marine

flatworms The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegment ...

), and from 1888 to 1894, he issued a textbook on the comparative anatomy of

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

that was subsequently translated into French and English. * ''Die Polycladen (Seeplanarien) des Golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden Meeresabschnitte'', (1884). * ''Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie der wirbellosen Thiere'', 2 Tl., (1888–94). * ''Beitrag zu einer Trophocöltheorie'', (1903). * ''Die experimentelle Vererbungslehre in der Zoologie seit 1900'', (1914).

References

External links

HathiTrust Digital Library
List of published works. Swiss naturalists 19th-century Swiss zoologists Swiss anatomists Embryologists 1855 births 1914 deaths People from Zofingen District University of Zurich faculty ETH Zurich faculty University of Jena alumni Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala {{Switzerland-scientist-stub