Benno Matthes

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Benno Friedrich Oswald Matthes (born September 15, 1825 in Liegnitz , † April 30, 1911 in Comfort (Texas) ) was a German zoologist ( herpetologist ) and doctor.

Life

Matthes probably studied medicine in Breslau. In a book from 1848 he accuses the Prussian authorities of inaction and the Prussian state of suppressing press reports on the famine in Silesia in 1846/47. He moved to the USA around 1850, where he was initially an obstetrician in Cincinnati from January 1852. From August 1853 he was in Texas, first in Galveston , then for a while in Houston . He collected for the museum in Dresden and published especially on amphibians and reptiles as well as travel reports about Texas in general. In 1854/55 he was back in Germany and in 1856 again in Texas, where he lived near Round Rock (Texas) . In 1860 he was briefly in Germany again and did his doctorate in Jena . From 1865 he was in Fayetteville (Texas) , where he had a pharmacy and practiced as a doctor. In 1907 he moved to Comfort.

He married Maria Meitzen in the 1860s. They both adopted two daughters.

In 1865 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

The first description of the transverse newt Ambystoma texanum comes from him (MATTHES 1855). He campaigned for animal welfare and wrote a book in which he was of the opinion that animals also have a soul.

literature

  • SW Geiser: Dr. Benno Matthes: An Early Texas Herpetologist, Field and Laboratory, Volume 9, May 1941
  • Selma Metzenthin Raunick: A Survey of German Literature in Texas, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 33, October 1929

Fonts

  • The hunger plague in Upper Silesia: Illumination of Upper Silesian and Prussian conditions . Mannheim 1848 Archives
  • Excursion from New Orleans to the Rio Colorado jungle in Texas . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Naturhistorische Zeitschrift, Volume 1, 1855, pp. 152–162 BHL
  • The Hemibatrachians in general and the Hemibatrachians of North America in particular . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Naturhistorische Zeitschrift, Volume 1, 1855, pp. 249–280 BHL
  • Travel pictures. Images from Texas. Dresden 1861 Google Books
  • Considerations on vertebrate animals, their psychic life and their relation to man. A contribution to the promotion of science and humanity. Dresden, 2nd edition 1866 Google Books
  • About the means of developing truly humane attitudes towards the animal world, Dresden 1861, Schwerin 1865 (lecture to the Dresden Animal Welfare Association December 29, 1860)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry by Benno Friedrich Oswald Matthes at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 19, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Matthes, Benno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matthes, Benno Friedrich Oswald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Liegnitz
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1911
Place of death Comfort (Texas)