Carl Adolf (Adolphe) Otth (April 2, 1803, Bern - May 16, 1839) was a Swiss physician and naturalist. He was the brother of mycologist Gustav Heinrich Otth (1806-1874).Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications
@ Biodiversity Heritage Library In 1822 he studied medicine in Bern, and afterwards attended classes on natural history in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, where he had as instructors,

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candoll ...

(1778-1841) and

Nicolas Charles Seringe Nicolas Charles Seringe (3 December 1776 – 29 December 1858) was a French physician and botanist born in Longjumeau. He studied medicine in Paris, and subsequently served as a military surgeon. In this role, he was involved in the German campai ...

(1776-1858). He later studied medicine at the Universities of

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, where in 1828 he received his doctorate. After six months in Paris, he returned to Bern. In 1836 as a naturalist, he journeyed to

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

and

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

in France, to the Balearic Islands and also to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. From these travels he collected a large number of insect, reptile and amphibian species. In 1837 he was the first to describe the frog genus ''

Discoglossus ''Discoglossus'' (common name: painted frogs) is a genus of frogs in the family Alytidae (formerly Discoglossidae) found in southern Europe and northwestern Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, ...

'' based on studies of the Mediterranean painted frog (''Discoglossus pictus''). In 1838 he published a book with thirty lithographs based on a trip to Algiers, titled ''Esquisses africaines, dessinées pendant un voyage a Alger et lithographiées par Adolphe Otth''. In 1839 during a journey to the Middle East, he died in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

at the age of 36.

References

* ''This article is based on a translation of an equivalaent article from the German Wikipedia.'' Swiss naturalists 19th-century Swiss zoologists Swiss herpetologists Scientists from Bern 1803 births 1839 deaths {{Biologist-stub