Karl Nikolaus Lang (18 February 1670 – 2 May 1741) was a Swiss physician and naturalist who collected fossils and questioned explanations based on the Biblical floods but came up with his own hypothesis that fossils were formed from seeds into the ground. Lang was born in Lucene to Johann Jakob and Maria Barbara Meyer. Johann Paul Carl von Moll was his uncle. He studied philosophy and theology at Freiburg im Bresigau, graduating in 1687 after which he studied in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and Rome, receiving a doctorate in 1692. He then served a military doctor and in 1699 became physician for Waldshut. He became a physician to Austrian officials and in 1708, he moved back to Lucerne. He served in the city council. Lang began to collect rocks, minerals and fossils and established a museum in Lucerne. He published a book ''Idea Historiae naturalis Lapidum figuratorum Helvetiae'' on his collection in 1705 with several later editions. He influenced

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

with his idea that fossils were not caused by Biblical floods but suggested, like the ideas of Edward Lhuyd, that they were germs scattered through the air, planted into the ground and grown in the heath of the earth. His membership to the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

was opposed by the diluvianist

John Woodward John Woodward or ''variant'', may refer to: Sports *John Woodward (English footballer) (born 1947), former footballer *John Woodward (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), former footballer *Johnny Woodward (1924–2002), English footballer *John D ...

. He also studied

rinderpest Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, buffaloes, large antelope, deer, giraffes, wildebeests, and warthogs ...

and

ergotism Ergotism (pron. ) is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the ''Claviceps purpurea'' fungus—from the Latin "club" or clavus "nail" and for "head", i.e. the purple club-head ...

References

External links

''Historia lapidum figuratorum Helvetiae, ejusque viciniae''
(1708) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Karl Nikolaus 1670 births 1741 deaths People from Lucerne 17th-century Swiss physicians 18th-century Swiss physicians Swiss naturalists