Friedrich Christian Günther (April 22, 1726 – April 25, 1774) was a German physician, mayor for the city of

Kahla Kahla () is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, 14 km south of Jena. Mayors *1990–2012: Bernd Leube *2012–2018: Claudia Nissen *2018–incumbent: Jan Schönfeld People wh ...

, a natural history collector and an ornithologist. He contributed text to a book on the nests and eggs of birds.

Life and work

Günther was born in

near

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

to pastor Johann Kaspar (1681–1755) and Katherine Margarethe née Mecke (1690–1743). Johann Kaspar moved to Kahla in 1723 from Altenburg. They had a son, theologian Carl Jacob (born 1717), and two daughters, Charlotta Wilhelmina (born 1719) and Henriette Friderica (born 1722), before the birth of Friedrich Christian. He studied at the public school in Kahla, where he was taught by Christian Petzold and also by a private tutor named H. Kebock. He was also influenced by physician Georg Wilhelm Beyer, who took him on walks in nature. This led to his studying medicine in Jena from 1744 to 1747. Studies were interrupted when his father suffered a stroke in 1746, during which time Günther returned home and worked on his thesis. His doctoral thesis, ''Dissertatio inauguralis medica de scorbuto eiusque medela'', was on scurvy and its treatment under Hilscher. He returned home and became a physician even before the formal doctorate was received. This led to some trouble, but he eventually overcame the issue. In 1752 he joined the city council, becoming a judge and deputy mayor (1761) during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

. In 1767–68 he served as a mayor. From his childhood, he collected natural history specimens and was a friend of

Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch (29 August 1725 – 1 December 1778) was a German theology, theologian, linguist, and naturalist from Jena. Life The son of the theologian Johann Georg Walch, he studied Semitic languages at the University of Jena, and ...

(1725–1778), who used his collections for lectures. He was among the first to collect a specimen of the

Egyptian vulture The Egyptian vulture (''Neophron percnopterus''), also called the white scavenger vulture or pharaoh's chicken, is a small Old World vulture in the monotypic genus ''Neophron''. It is widely distributed from the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa ...

from

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. He also wrote on the breeding of

siskin The name siskin when referring to a bird is derived from an adaptation of the German dialect words ''sisschen'', ''zeischen'', which are diminutive forms of Middle High German (''zîsec'') and Middle Low German (''ziseke'', ''sisek'') words, wit ...

s in Thuringia. Günther translated the work of

Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Au ...

, ''Annus historiconaturalis'', publishing it in 1770 and adding his own observations on birds from Thuringia. He also contributed to the text of Adam Ludwig Wirsing (1734–1798) on the nests and eggs of birds, which was published only in 1772. His was among the first ornithological works that looked at the life of birds in their habitats. Günther took a special interest in abnormal plumages, both

albinistic Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and reddish pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albinos. Varied use and interpretation of ...

and

melanistic Melanism is the congenital excess of melanin in an organism resulting in dark pigment. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pigmentation, identifiable by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the bod ...

. He accepted Neur's theory on the formation of colour by optical effects but added his hypothesis that fluids filled the invisible channels within feathers, leading to the coloration. He believed that young birds born from aged birds failed to inherit the "sap" needed to color the feathers. Günther married Eleonora Sophia, daughter of lawyer Trautmann, in 1761; they had four children, two of whom died young. Günther suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, possibly acquired from his patients, and it became acute in 1773. He retired in 1774 and died in Kahla. His collections included minerals, fossils, animals, and especially stuffed birds. They have not been traced, but it has been speculated that they may have gone into the collections of Walch and then into those of the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

. His grave was probably destroyed in 1952–53.

References

External links

Sammlung von Nestern und Eyern verschiedener Vögel
(1772) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunther, Friedrich Christian 1726 births 1774 deaths German ornithologists