Caspar Tobias Zollikofer

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Title of the facsimile of Zollikofer's Pomological Studies

Caspar Tobias Zollikofer ( Kaspar Zollikofer von Altenklingen ) (born May 16, 1774 at Bürglen Castle ; † December 6, 1843 in St. Gallen ) was a Swiss pharmacist and naturalist .

Live and act

Caspar Tobias Zollikofer's father, Johann Georg Zollikofer from the Zollikofer von Altenklingen family at Altenklingen Castle, was the last Supreme Bailiff of the Bürglen lordship belonging to the city of St. Gallen .

Caspar Tobias Zollikofer studied medicinal science in Zurich with Johann Heinrich Rahn , Paul Usteri and Römer and in Halle with Meckel, Kurt Sprengel and Johann Christian Reil . With the dissertation Sensus Externus he obtained his medical doctorate here on June 28, 1794 and became a member of the Swiss Society of Corresponding Doctors and Surgeons . He continued his education in Edinburgh.

In 1797 he returned to St. Gallen and, at the time of the overthrow of the Old Confederation , did a great job building the new canton of Säntis and was appointed senior secretary of its administrative chamber. After the administrative chamber was dissolved in 1802, he devoted himself to his profession as a doctor. In 1803 he and Daniel Meyer opened the pharmacy zum blau Himmel in St. Gallen, which Meyer continued to run alone from 1808.

He also held the offices of the Sanitary Council, the President of the Sanitary Commission, was district and appeals judge as well as canton council and local school council.

In his free time he devoted himself to the natural sciences. In 1816 he joined the Natural Science Society in Bern, which had been founded in Geneva the previous year. On January 29, 1819 he was a co-founder of the foundation of the St. Gallische Naturwissenschaftliche Kantonalgesellschaft , of which he was president. From 1830, however, the attendance at the meetings decreased.

From 1815 to 1837 he made more than 950 watercolors and pencil drawings of plants in his vicinity and alpine plants from the Säntis area, as well as over 200 drawings of insects, with the support of his servant Johann Ulrich Fitzi, who was appointed in 1810, with the intention of publishing illustrated Swiss alpine flora has been. He also dealt with fruit growing in Eastern Switzerland and produced watercolors of 200 apple and pear varieties from 1831 to 1834 . He took over the methodology of the variety description from Adrian Diel . Nees von Esenbeck and other botanical friends named some plants after him.

On May 14, 1822 he married his childhood friend Charlotte Wilhelmine Johanna Elisabeth, widowed Gradmann († 1829). He had returned sick from a trip on foot from Italy in the autumn of 1837 in unfavorable weather. In 1841 he entered the family institute rights as the oldest Zollikofer of the Georgian line . In 1843 he became a corresponding member of the "National Institute for the Advancement of Science" in Washington. After his apoplectic attack, his bereaved relatives burned his written estate for eight days. As a result, it was largely unknown that he was a member of the Leopoldina from November 1820 . Since his will lacked the necessary legal form, his library was dispersed and his natural history collection was bought for the Natural History Museum.

Honors

According to Zollikofer, they are the plant genera Zollikoferia Nees and Zollikoferiastrum (Kirp.) Kamelin , both from the Asteraceae family.

Fonts

  • Trial of an Alpine flora in Switzerland ( Tentamen florae Alpinae Helvetiae, iconibus lapide incisis et descriptionibus illustratae. ) Huber, 1828.

literature

  • Early 19th Century Pomological Studies. Commented facsimile. Fructus, Wädenswil 2005, ISBN 3-95230470-0 .
  • Kurt Aulich: Scientific efforts in St. Gallen at the time of Caspar Tobias Zollikofer. In: Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society. Scientific and administrative part. Vol. 149, 1969, doi : 10.5169 / seals-90680 .
  • Urs Müller: Caspar Tobias Zollikofer (1774–1843) as a pomologist: draftsman between scientific faithfulness to nature and artistic aesthetics. In. Librarium: Journal of the Swiss Bibliophile Society , Volume 50, Issue 2, 2007, pp. 132–140, doi : 10.5169 / seals-388823 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society ... , Volume 29, p. 238
  2. ↑ Dr. med. Caspar Tobias Zollikofer on the website of the St. Gallen Natural Science Society, accessed on October 9, 2017.
  3. ^ Christoph Mörgeli : Rahn, Johann Heinrich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  4. ↑ Luc Lienhard: Meyer, Daniel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  5. ^ Thomas Fuchs: Fitzi, Johann Ulrich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  6. ↑ JDF Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann, Jena 1860, p. 253. Archives
  7. ↑ Member entry of Caspar Salomon Zollikofer at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on March 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Zollikofer, Caspar Tobias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Altenklingen, Kaspar Zollikofer from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss pharmacist and natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Bürglen Castle
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1843
Place of death St. Gallen