Johann Heinrich Blasius (7 October 1809 – 26 May 1870) was a German

zoologist 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 ...

. His sons,

Rudolf Heinrich Paul Blasius Rudolf Heinrich Paul Blasius (25 November 1842, Braunschweig - 21 September 1907, Braunschweig) was a German physician, bacteriologist, naturalist and ornithologist.image:Gabstein_der_Eheleute_Rudolf_und_Mally_Blasius.JPG, left, 200px, Grave of Rud ...

(1842-1907) and

August Wilhelm Heinrich Blasius August Wilhelm Heinrich Blasius (5 July 1845 in Braunschweig – 31 May 1912 in Braunschweig) was a German ornithologist. Blasius belonged to a family of scientists: his father was the ornithologist Johann Heinrich Blasius (1809-1870) and his br ...

(1845–1912) were

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Biography

In 1836, he was appointed as a professor at the Collegium Carolinum in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

. In 1840, he founded the

Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Braunschweig The botanical garden of the TU Braunschweig (Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Braunschweig) was founded in 1840 by Johann Heinrich Blasius on the banks of the River Oker on the grounds of the former stately mansion in the woods ...

. In 1859 he was appointed as the director of the newly founded

Naturhistorisches Museum (Braunschweig) The State Natural History Museum (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Braunschweig) in Braunschweig, Germany, is a zoology museum. It was founded in 1754. Collections The scientific collections include 3,000 mammal specimens, 50,000 bird specimens ...

and in 1866 also of the

Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) is an art museum in the German city of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. History Founded in 1754, the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum is one of the oldest museums in Europe. The museum has its origins in the art and nat ...

Writings

He was the author of two major books on

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

s: "''Fauna der Wirbelthiere Deutschlands''" (1857), and "''Die wirbelthiere Europa's''" (Vertebrates of Europe, with

Alexander Keyserling Alexander Friedrich Michael Lebrecht Nikolaus Arthur Graf von Keyserling (15 August 1815 – 8 May 1891) was a Baltic German geologist and paleontologist from the Keyserlingk family of Baltic German nobility. Career Alexander von Keyse ...

, 1840). He also wrote "''Reise im Europäischen Russland in den Jahren 1840 und 1851''" (Journey to

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

in the years 1840 & 1851). In 1862 ornithologist

Alfred Newton Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionar ...

(1829–1907) published "A list of the birds of Europe", a translation based on Blasius' research. Blasius was also an early contemporary critic of Darwin's ''

Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'': :I have also seldom read a scientific book which makes such wide-ranging conclusions with so few facts supporting them. … Darwin wants to show that kinds come from other kinds erman ''Arten'' I regard this as somewhat of a highhanded hypothesis, because he argues using unproven possibilities, without even naming a single example of the origin of a particular species. … :Zoologists who engage in empirical research would generally regard as valid only that which can be observed in an experiment or in free-living nature. And what one observes there is that the offspring of a plant or animal inevitably resembles the parents, i.e. they belong to the same kind. The immovability of the boundaries of the kinds is, for most of us, a law of nature.Director Blasius interview: “Evolution is only a Hypothesis”, 1859, cited in ''

Braunschweiger Zeitung The ''Braunschweiger Zeitung'' is a daily regional newspaper serving Braunschweig, Germany and surrounding towns and villages in Brunswick Land. It is operated by the BZV Medienhaus GmbH, headquartered in Braunschweig. Local editions There are ...

'', 29 March 2004.

References

NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie

External links

The Darwin Correspondence Online DatabaseBHL
Digitised ''Die wirbelthiere Europa's''
WorldCat Identities
Publications by Blasius. 1809 births 1870 deaths Technical University of Braunschweig faculty 19th-century German zoologists {{ornithologist-stub