Johann Bartsch (1709–1738) was a German physician. Bartsch was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

, and graduated in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

at Leiden University in 1737. His ''Thesis de Calore Corporis Humani hygraulico'' is the only work he published. He was much attached to the science of botany, which led him to seek the society of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

, who was on a year-long visit to

Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist, ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

. No fewer than 47 letters of Bartsch to Linnaeus from 1736 and 1737 survive, and Bartsch assisted Linnaeus with the publication of ''Flora Lapponica'

By the solicitation of Linnaeus, who had to decline the offer himself, Bartsch was sent by Boerhaave to Suriname, where he died six months after his arrival, having responded badly to the climate. Linnaeus has perpetuated his name by denominating a genus of plants (''

Bartsia ''Bartsia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orobanchaceae. Bartsia grows in damp places, such as marshes and wet meadows, in several parts of the west of England and Wales and in southwest Scotland. Etymology ''Bartsia'' was name ...

'') after him.

References

1709 births 1738 deaths Physicians from Königsberg 18th-century German botanists 18th-century German physicians Leiden University alumni Scientists from Königsberg {{Germany-botanist-stub