Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist,

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians ( gymnophiona)) and rep ...

and ichthyologist.

Early life and education

Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulated Schlegel's interest in natural history. The discovery, by chance, of a

buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Eastern ...

's nest led him to the study of birds, and a meeting with

Christian Ludwig Brehm Christian Ludwig Brehm (24 January 1787 – 23 June 1864) was a German pastor and ornithologist. He was the father of the zoologist Alfred Brehm. Life Brehm was born in Schönau near Gotha on 24 January 1787. He was educated at Universit ...

. Schlegel started to work for his father, but soon tired of it. He travelled to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1824, where, at the university, he attended the lectures of Leopold Fitzinger and Johann Jacob Heckel. A letter of introduction from Brehm to gained him a position at the

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...

Ornithological career

One year after his arrival, the director of this natural history museum,

Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers (15 August 1775 – 21 May 1852) was an Austrian naturalist who was a native of Pressburg, Hungary, Habsburg Empire (today Bratislava, Slovakia). In 1847, an uncommon iron-nickel-phosphide ((Fe,Ni)3P) miner ...

, recommended him to Coenraad Jacob Temminck, director of the natural history museum of Leiden, who was seeking an assistant. At first Schlegel worked mainly on the reptile collection and wrote ''Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens'' (1837), but soon his field of activity extended to other zoological groups. It had been intended that Schlegel be sent to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

to join the Natural History Commission, but the untimely death of Temminck's intended successor,

Heinrich Boie Heinrich Boie (4 May 1794, Meldorf, Holstein – 4 September 1827, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia) was a German zoologist. He was the brother of Friedrich Boie. In the field of herpetology they described 49 new species of reptiles and several ne ...

, prevented the realization of this project. It was at this time that Schlegel met

Philipp Franz von Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveler. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora and fauna and the introduction of Western medicine in Japan. He w ...

. They became firm friends and collaborated on ''Fauna Japonica'' (1845-1850). In 1847 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, when that became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851 he became member. Schlegel considered

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

as fixed, and consequently from the publication of ''

On the 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 ...

'' until his death was strongly opposed to Darwin's theory. The English naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

knew of Schlegel's opinions on species and evolution from remarks by his close friend, the British botanist and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...

: ‘I talked much with Schlegel, he is strongly in favour of a multiple creation & against migration’.Hooker, J .D. 1845. Letter to C.R. Darwin, 23 March 1845. Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter no. 844.
/ref>

Director of the natural history museum

When Temminck died at the beginning of 1858, Schlegel succeeded him as director of the natural history museum, after having spent 33 years under his direction. Schlegel was particularly interested in Southeast Asia, and in 1857 sent his son

Gustav Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: *Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...

to collect birds in China. Gustav arrived to find that Robert Swinhoe had gotten there first. In 1859, Schlegel sent

Heinrich Agathon Bernstein Heinrich Agathon Bernstein (22 September 1828 – 19 April 1865) was a German naturalist, zoologist and explorer from Breslau (Wrocław). Biography Early years Heinrich Agathon Bernstein was born on 22 September 1828 in Breslau (modern-day ...

to collect birds in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. After the death of Bernstein in 1865, he was succeeded by

Hermann von Rosenberg Hermann von Rosenberg (April 7, 1817 – November 15, 1888) was a German naturalist born in Darmstadt. He published a few books and several articles concerning his work in the East Indies. In these he describes the geography, zoology, linguistics ...

. Schlegel took on a young assistant,

Otto Finsch Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate ...

. At the same time, he started to publish a scientific magazine, ''Notes from the Leyden Museum'', as well as a vast work of 14 volumes, '' Muséum d'histoire naturelle des Pays-Bas'' (1862-1880). He employed three talented illustrators:

John Gerrard Keulemans Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (J. G. Keulemans) (8 June 1842 – 29 March 1912) was a Dutch bird illustrator. For most of his life he lived and worked in England, illustrating many of the best-known ornithology books of the nineteenth century. ...

Joseph Smit Joseph Smit (18 July 1836 – 4 November 1929) was a Dutch zoological illustrator. L.B. Holthuis, Leiden, (1958, 1995) ''Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, 1820 - 1958''. page 47reprint manuscript, PDF Background Smit was born in Lisse. H ...

and

Joseph Wolf Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820 – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livi ...

. The end of Schlegel's life was difficult: his wife died in 1864, Finsch moved to the natural history museum at Bremen, and the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

started to eclipse those of Leiden. Schlegel died on 17 January 1884 in Leiden. His sons are the sinologist and field naturalist

Gustaaf Schlegel Gustaaf Schlegel (30 September 184015 October 1903) was a Dutch sinologist and field naturalist. E. Bruce Brooks (9 June 2004)Gustaaf Schlegel, Sinology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, retrieved 17 September 2011 Life and career Gustaaf S ...

(1840-1903) and the composer and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Leander Schlegel (1844-1913).

Animal species named for Schlegel

In alphabetical order by common name: *

Eyelash viper ''Bothriechis schlegelii'', known commonly as the eyelash viper, is a species of venomous pit viper in the family Viperidae. The species is native to Central and South America. Small and arboreal, this species is characterized by a wide array of ...

''(Bothriechis schlegelii)'', a pit viperBeolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Schlegel", p. 235). * False gharial ''(Tomistoma schlegelii)'' , a crocodilian * The Giant sharkminnow ''(Osteochilus schlegelii)'', a fish * Red-headed reed snake ''( Calamaria schlegeli)'', a nonvenomous snake * Royal Penguin ''( Eudyptes schlegeli)'', a crested penguin * Schlegel's adder ''( Aspidomorphus schlegelii)'', a venomous

elapid Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids ; grc, ἔλλοψ ''éllops'' "sea-fish") is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus Emydoce ...

snake * Schlegel's beaked blind snake ''(

Afrotyphlops schlegelii ''Afrotyphlops schlegelii'', commonly known as Schlegel's beaked blind snake Branch, Bill (2004). ''Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa''. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Boo ...

)'', a nonvenomous burrowing snake * Schlegel's forest skink ''( Sphenomorphus schlegeli)'', a lizard * Schlegel's green tree frog ''( Rhacophorus schlegelii)'', a shrub frog

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegel, Hermann 19th-century German zoologists 1804 births 1884 deaths German herpetologists German ornithologists German ichthyologists German taxonomists Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Altenburg People from Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg