Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher (15 November 1757 in

Glückstadt Glückstadt (; da, Lykstad) is a town in the Steinburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Lower Elbe at the confluence of the small Rhin river, about northwest of Altona. Glückstadt is part of th ...

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

– 9 December 1830) was a Danish

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

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 professor of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having i ...

at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

. Schumacher carried out significant research work in

malacology Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

, in other words on

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is est ...

s, and described several

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

Life

Early years (1757-1778)

He was born to Joachim Christian Schumacher, a sergeant in the

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

of the

Duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between ...

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

, and his wife, Caroline Magdalene in

in present-day

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. In spite of his family's limited means, he received a good upbringing, and was sent to grammar school in

Rendsburg Rendsburg ( da, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'', nds, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Eck ...

. After confirmation became the apprentice of the regiment surgeon, Mehl, a learned and skilled man, who gave his eager student a thorough introduction to both medicine and botany, thereby waking Schumacher's natural gift for science. By 1773, at the age of 16, his keen efforts got him appointed as a military surgeon with his father's

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

in the army stationed in Rendsburg, working under Dr. Mehl's command. In 1777 he got an 8-month leave from the army enroll as a student at Theatrum Anatomico-chirurgicum in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

(now a part of the

faculty Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division) A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject ...

of medicine at the

). While in Copenhagen he lived on nothing but an advance on his rather low wage and in 1778 he returned starved to his post in Rendsburg. He had however made a good enough impression on professor

Christen Friis Rottbøll Christen Friis Rottbøll (3 March 1727, at Hørbygård, Denmark – 15 June 1797, in Copenhagen) was a Danish physician and botanist: He was a pupil of Carolus Linnaeus. Early life Rottbøll was born on the Hørbygaard estate at Holbæk, the so ...

for him to call Schumacher back to Copenhagen to finish the education and to a position as

prosector A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and p ...

at the University of Copenhagen.

Choice of profession (1778-1789)

This was his opportunity to begin a scientific career. He graduated from Theatrum Anatomico-chirurgicum no later than 1779, and begun studying botany under the guidance of both Rottbøll and

Martin Vahl Martin Henrichsen Vahl (10 October 1749 – 24 December 1804) was a Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist. Biography Martin Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway and attended Bergen Cathedral School. He studied botany at the University ...

, who had recently become lecturer at the

University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden ( da, Botanisk have), usually referred to simply as Copenhagen Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers an area of 10 hectares and is particul ...

. Intending to follow Vahl's example Schumacher embarked upon what was intended to be an international research tour in 1784, but the timetable of the ship was changed at the last minute and he got no further than the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. This forced him to change his plans altogether and returning to Copenhagen he became a surgeon at both Theatrum Anatomico-chirurgicum and at

Frederiks Hospital The royal Frederiks Hospital was Denmark's first hospital in the present-day meaning of the word. It was founded by king Frederik V and financed by the earnings from the Norwegian Postal Service. The buildings, situated in Bredgade in Copenh ...

. In 1786 he took the exam of the recently started surgical academy and a position as lecturer at the academy. Later that year he received a scholarship and finally embarked on a study trip around Europe from 1786 to 1789. In Paris he studied chemistry in the lectures of

Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

and botany with

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an ...

. And in London he was influenced by John Hunter among others. It had been a condition of the scholarship that he would study chemistry.

Taxa named by him

A marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

genus: * '' Bufonaria'' Schumacher, 1817

Bibliography

* ''Bemerkung einer Schusswunde'' – Observation of a gunshot wound – 1778 (in German) * ''Om Slægten

Paullinia ''Paullinia'' is a genus of flowering shrubs, small trees and lianas in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, native to tropical South America, Central America and the Caribbean. The genus is named after the German medical botanist Christian ...

Linn.'' – About the family

Linn. – 1794 (in Danish) * ''Medicinisch-chirurgische Bemerkungen'' – Medical and surgical observations – 1800 (in German) * ''Versuch eines Verzeichnisses der in den dänisch-nordischen Staaten sich findenden einfachen Mineralien mit Tabellen der einfachen Fossilien nach ihren vorwaltenden Bestandtheilen'' – Attempt at a list of minerals present in Denmark and Norway with tables of fossils listed by their components – 1801 (in German) * ''Enumeratio plantarum in partibus Sællandiæ septentrionalis et orientalis'' – published in two parts 1801-03 (in Latin) (Translated into Danish in 1804 as ''Den kjøbenhavnske flora'' – The flora of Copenhagen) * ''Lærebog i Anatomien. 1. Deel. Beenlære'' – Textbook on anatomy, part 1,

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, func ...

– 1807 (in Danish) * ''Nogle Advarsler for Sunde og Syge ang. Blodgang, først meddeelte af det medicinske Fakultæt i Kiel 1798, og nu med nogle tilføyede Anmærkninger paa ny bragte i Erindring'' – Some warnings to the sick and healthy alike regarding circulation, first reported by the faculty of medicine in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

1798, with additional remarks – 1808 (in Danish) * ''De officinelle Lægemidler af Planteriget, som voxe vildt eller kunne dyrkes i de danske Stater, ordnede efter de forskjellige Aarstider, paa hvilke de indsamles'' – The botanical medicines, which either grow wild or could be cultivated in Denmark, sorted by season of harvest – 1808 (in Danish) * ''Essai d'un nouveau système des habitations des vers testacés avec XXII planches'' – 1817 (in French) * ''Om Abens Hierne og dens Forretninger sammenlignet med Menneskets og andre Dyrs Hierne'' – The brain of the apes and its functions compared to the brains of humans and other animals – 1824 (in Danish) * ''Medicinsk Plantelære for studerende Læger og Pharmaceutiker'' – The botany of medicine for student doctors and pharmacists – 1825-26 (in Danish) * ''Beskrivelse af guineiske planter, som ere fundne af danske Botanikere, især af Etatsraad Thonning'' – Description of plants of

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

discovered by Danish botanists, especially by royal advisor Thonning – 1828-29 (in Danish)

References

Biography
(in Danish) from Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 1. edition, scanned by

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schumacher, Heinrich Christian Friedrich 1757 births 1830 deaths 18th-century Danish physicians 18th-century Danish botanists Danish surgeons Danish anatomists Danish malacologists Danish science writers University of Copenhagen faculty 19th-century Danish botanists