Christian Hee Hwass

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Conus pertusus , Hwass in Brugière 1792

Christian Hee Hwass (* 1731 in Jutland , † 1803 in Paris ) was a Danish malacologist who worked in France.

Life

Hwass graduated from Copenhagen in 1755 and then traveled through Europe as a companion and teacher to wealthy merchant sons on their Grand Tour . He then directed the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, but was with his family in France from 1780, first in Paris (where he was connected to the Danish embassy) and from 1794 in Auteuil . Financially independent, he collected art and conchylia . He made his collection available to other authors and scientists in the field of malacology for scientific purposes, in particular for initial descriptions based on the Linnaeus binary system. He had contacts with naturalists such as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher , a Danish scientist whom he supported on his trip to France. He and not his friend Jean Guillaume Bruguière (1750-1798), who was named as the editor, essentially wrote the article on Conchylia in the volume Histoire Naturelle des Vers of the series Encyclopédie Méthodique (Volume 1, 1792).

His collection of Conchylia changed hands several times and is now in the Natural History Museum in Geneva. There were many rare specimens in his collection, including one of four Conus gloriamaris known at the time . After his death, his collection was in the possession of the French botanist LCM Richard, then in that of Sollier, in that of François Victor Masséna and, through these, in that of Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert , after whose death it was donated to Geneva.

He introduced 109 initial descriptions of cone snails , described in his encyclopedia article.

literature

  • Short biography in Alan J. Kohn: "Conus" of the Southeastern United States and Caribbean, Princeton University Press 2014, p. 85
  • E. Lamy: Les conchyliologistes Bruguière et Hwass. Journal de Conchyliologie, Volume 74, 1930, pp. 42-59.
  • H. Dodge: A letter concerning the cones of Hwass and other collections in Switzerland, The Nautilus 59, 1946, pp. 97-101
  • Alan J. Kohn Hwass or Brugière? Now we know or do we , Hawaiian Shell News 5 (6), 1957, p. 60
  • Alan J. Kohn: Type specimens and identity of the described species of Conus. IV. The species described by Hwass, Bruguière and Olivi in ​​1792. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, Volume 47, 1968, pp. 431-503, pls. 1-9.
  • Alan J. Kohn: A chronological taxonomy of Conus, 1758-1840. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992
  • P. Dance: Shell collecting: An Illustrated History, London: Faber & Faber, 1966
  • CA Gosch: Christian Hee Hwass 1731–1803 . In: Journal of conchology . tape 11 , 1905, pp. 331-332 ( online [accessed June 30, 2015]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The work has verse (worms) in the title, but it refers to invertebrates
  2. ^ Kohn, "Conus" of the Southeastern United States and Caribbean, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Hwass, Christian Hee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish malacologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1731
PLACE OF BIRTH Jutland
DATE OF DEATH 1803
Place of death Paris