Johann, or Jean-Frederic, Hermann, or Herrmann, (31 December 1738 in
Barr Barr may refer to:
Places
* Barr (placename element), element of place names meaning 'wooded hill', 'natural barrier'
* Barr, Ayrshire, a village in Scotland
* Barr Building (Washington, DC), listed on the US National Register of Historic Places ...
,
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
– 4 October 1800 in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
) was a French
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 ...
and
naturalist.
In 1769 he was appointed professor of medicine at the School of Public Health of Strasbourg, then, in 1778, professor of philosophy, before going on, in 1784, to succeed Jacob Reinbold Spielmann as chair of chemistry, natural history and
materia medica. In 1794 he became professor of botany and materia medica in the new School of Medicine.
He was the author of ''Tabula affinitatum animalium '' (1783) and ''Observationes zoologicae quibus novae complures'', published posthumously in 1804.
His collections and library of 18,000 volumes formed the basis of the
Natural History Museum of Strasbourg, where a reconstruction of his natural history cabinet was opened in 1988 .
Hermann was also in charge of
Strasbourg's botanical garden, where he was responsible for a large increase in the number of living plant species. The garden was threatened with closure by the city administration during the French Revolution, and was only saved by the efforts of Hermann.
His zoological collection, including 200 mammals, 900 birds, more than 200 reptiles, many fish, invertebrates and dried plants, was bought by the city of Strasbourg in 1804 and served as the base for the
Strasbourg zoological Museum.
![Musée zoologique cabinet d'histoire naturelle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Mus%C3%A9e_zoologique_cabinet_d%27histoire_naturelle.JPG)
His brother, Jean-Frédéric Hermann (1743–1820), Professor of Law, was a member of the Lower Rhine and Mayor of Strasbourg.
His son,
Jean-Frédéric Hermann (1768–1793), would follow in his footsteps both in medicine and in natural history, until his untimely death during the revolutionary wars put an end to his ambitions.
Hermann's name survives most famously through
Hermann's tortoise
Hermann's tortoise (''Testudo hermanni'') is a species of tortoise. Two subspecies are known: the western Hermann's tortoise (''T. h. hermanni'' ) and the eastern Hermann's tortoise (''T. h. boettgeri'' ). Sometimes mentioned as a subspecies, ...
(''Testudo hermanni'' ).
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Hermann", p. 121).]
References
Further reading
*Damkaer DM (2002). ''The Copepodologist's Cabinet. A Biographical and Bibliographical History''. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. xix + 300 pp., Figures 93–96, Portrait.
*
Rose HJ (1850). ''A New General Biographical Dictionary. Volume VIII. GEO—JEN.'' London. 512 pp. ("Hermann, (John)
ic, pp. 292–293).
1738 births
1800 deaths
People from Barr, Bas-Rhin
French Lutherans
French ornithologists
French zoologists
Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
{{Ornithologist-stub