Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz (

Roodt-sur-Eisch Roodt-sur-Eisch (, ) is a village in the commune of Habscht, in western Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Gran ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, 25 November 1722 – 18 January 1799, Judenburg,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) was a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. In 1750 he obtained his doctorate of medicine in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where he was a pupil of

Gerard van Swieten Gerard van Swieten (7 May 1700 – 18 June 1772) was a Dutch physician who from 1745 was the personal physician of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and transformed the Austrian health service and medical university education. He was the fa ...

(1700–1772). He studied

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

in Paris and London. In Paris he was influenced by

André Levret André Levret (8 January 1703 in Paris – 22 January 1780) was a French obstetrician who practised medicine in Paris. He was a contemporary of famed English obstetrician William Smellie (1697–1763), and along with Jean-Louis Baudelocque ( ...

(1703–1780) and Nicolas Puzos (1686–1753).Crantz (Cranz), Heinrich Johann Nepomuk Edler von (seit 1774)
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, , S. 400 f. He was first married to Anna Susanne Petrasch and then to Magda Lena de Tremon. He had two sons and one daughter. He became a lecturer in obstetrics at St. Mary's Hospital in Vienna in 1754. From 1756 to 1774, he taught

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

and materia medica at the university in that city. He was the author of: * ''Einleitung in eine wahre und gegründete Hebammenkunst'' (1756). * ''Commentarius de rupto in partus doloribus a foetu utero'' (1756). * ''Commentatio de instrumentorum in arte obstetricia historia utilitate et recta ac praepostera applicatione'' (1757). * ''De systemate irritabilitatis'' (1761). * ''Materia medica et chirurgica'' (three volumes, 1762) (Vol. 1 - 3 176
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of th ...

) * ''De aquis medicatis principatus Transsylvaniae'' (1773). * ''Die Gesundbrunnen der Österreichischen Monarchie'' (1777). He recommended better methods of

hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

for

midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

. In addition to his work in medicine, he studied chemistry, botany, and the sources of mineral water. The plant genus ''

Crantzia ''Crantzia'' is a plant genus in the family Gesneriaceae. ''Crantzia'' species grow in damp or wet forests, mostly on Caribbean islands. Some are epiphytes, others are subshrubs or herbaceous plants with fibrous roots. Several taxa from the Ges ...

'' (

Gesneriaceae Gesneriaceae, the gesneriad family, is a family of flowering plants consisting of about 152 genera and ca. 3,540 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World (almost all Didymocarpoideae) and the New World (most Gesnerioideae), with ...

) was named for him by

Thomas Nuttall Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an England, English botany, botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841. Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle, North Yorkshire, S ...

.CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific ..., Volume 1
by Umberto Quattrocchi

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crantz, Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von 1722 births 1797 deaths 18th-century Austrian physicians 18th-century Austrian botanists Edlers of Austria Alumni of the Athénée de Luxembourg Austrian people of Luxembourgian descent University of Vienna alumni