Alexander Nicolaus Scherer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexander Nicolaus Scherer

Alexander Nicholas Scherer ( Russian Александр Иванович Шерер , * December 30, 1771 . Jul / 10 January 1772 greg. In Saint Petersburg , † October 16 jul. / 28. October  1824 greg. In Saint Petersburg) was a German-Russian chemist .

Life

His father, Johann Benedict Scherer, had a doctorate in law from Alsace and was a civil servant in the college for Finnish, Estonian and Livonian legal matters; his mother came from Riga . Since the father left the family when he went to Versailles as an official of the Russian Foreign Ministry, he grew up in poor circumstances in Saint Petersburg, which only improved when his mother went with him to her brother in Riga in 1783. He attended the cathedral school in Riga and studied theology in Jena from 1789, but then turned to chemistry. Since his relatives canceled his support, he found the support of the Duke of Weimar through the mediation of his teachers ( Friedrich August Göttling , Voigt) through Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . He received his doctorate in Jena in 1794, was involved in the founding of the natural research society in Jena and taught chemistry there until he was forbidden to do so because he got into a dispute with his teachers. Scherer visited England and Scotland and after returning to Weimar in 1799, where he was appointed Bergrat by the Duke and gave public chemistry lectures at the Weimar grammar school. Several publications made him known and he became professor of physics in Halle in 1800. But that became too monotonous for him and he became a chemist at Baron von Eckstein's faience factory near Potsdam .

In 1803 he became a professor of chemistry and pharmacy at the newly founded University of Dorpat . A little later he went as a professor at the medical and surgical academy in Saint Petersburg, where military doctors were trained. He also taught chemistry at the Mountain Cadet Corps (where he became an inspector) and the Pedagogical Institute, and he gave public lectures during the winter. In 1818 he was the founder of the Pharmaceutical Society in Saint Petersburg and its director. He was also in the Manufactory College and on the Medical Council.

He wrote a work on the medicinal springs of Russia and should also examine those in the Caucasus. Due to his temper, however, he fell out with important personalities in Saint Petersburg and his student Neljubin was selected for it (he published about it in 1825). Scherer was disappointed and resigned from his professorship at the medical and surgical academy. He died of hepatitis and left a widow and three children.

In 1807 he became an associate and in 1815 a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In 1821 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Fonts

  • Outlines of the more recent chemical theory . Jena 1795 Google Books
  • Attempt at popular chemistry . Mühlhausen 1795, 10685995 in VD 18 .
  • Addenda to the basics of the newer chemical theory . Jena 1796 Google Books
  • Brief description of the chemical investigations of the types of gas. Designed for his public lectures . Weimar 1799 Google Books (also translated into English)
  • The latest research on bladder stone mix . Jena 1800
  • Chemistry outline . Cotta, Tübingen 1800. Google Books
  • Attempt of a systematic overview of the healing springs of the Russian Empire , with 11 maps. St. Petersburg 1820 Google Books

From 1798 he published the Allgemeine Journal der Chemie . It was first published by Breitkopf and Härtel in Leipzig and from 1801 to 1803 in Berlin.

In 1817/18 he published the Nordic sheets for chemistry in Saint Petersburg and then from 1819 to 1822 the general Nordic annals of chemistry (8 volumes).

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Patronymic name Ivanovich because of his father's first name Johann
  2. ↑ His predecessor doctor from Saxony died in the year of his appointment in 1802
  3. ↑ Member entry of Nikolaus Alexander von Scherer at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 19, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Scherer, Alexander Nicolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Russian chemist
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1824
Place of death St. Petersburg