Hans Strøm

Hans Strøm

Hans Strøm (born January 25, 1726 in Borgund (today Ålesund ), † February 1, 1797 in Hokksund in Øvre Eiker ) was a Norwegian pastor , naturalist and topographer . Its author 's abbreviation is Ström .

His parents were the provost Peder Olsen Strøm (1682–1741) and his wife Gunhild Susanna Hagerup (1687–1764). On December 5, 1764, he married Helene Dorothea Meyer nee Grave (1734-1808), daughter of the pastor Christian Grave (1700-1763) and his wife Maren Lerche (1708-1743).

He is known as Norway's first real natural scientist.

Youth and professional career

He grew up in Borgund, where his father provost and, together with his uncle Eiler Hagerup, was a member of the pietistic pastor group "Syvstjernen" (Seven Stars). He was interested in nature and loved drawing, so his father was already considering sending him to the art academy in Copenhagen. When his father died, he was 15 years old and was in the final grade of the Bergen Cathedral School. A year later he came to the University of Copenhagen and passed the theological state examination in 1745.

Strøm had no intention of becoming a pastor. He returned home to his wealthy mother and continued studying with the help of his father's library. His father's successor at the parish office persuaded him to become its chaplain. He stayed that way for 14 years, after which he became a pastor in Volda , where he married the widow of his predecessor and also took over their two children. The four own children died in infancy. After 15 years in Volda he became a pastor in Hokksund, which was a more lucrative pastor's position and where his father-in-law had been pastor and his wife had grown up. After 18 years there, he died at the age of 71.

The researcher

Map of the district Eger by Hans Strøm in Physisk og Oeconomisk Beskrivelse over Fogderiet Søndmør… .

Hans Strøm didn't like preaching, but he was interested in people and was a good pastor. As a chaplain, he traveled a lot in his district. From 1748 he made scientific records and also described economic life. In 1752 the first volume of Erik Pontoppidan's work Et første Forsøg paa Norges naturlige Historie (The first attempt at Norway's natural history) was published. This inspired him to do his systematic work, which resulted in Physisk og Oeconomisk Beskrivelse over Fogderiet Søndmør beliggende i Bergens Stift i Norge (physical and economic description of the Bailiwick of Søndmør in the diocese of Bergen in Norway) and appeared in two volumes in 1762 and 1766. The difference between his work and the Pontoppidans is clear: Pontoppidan only used second-hand information, while Strøm made a point of only recording what he had seen himself. The first volume contains a brief description of the Bailiwick, which is accompanied by a map that you have drawn yourself. In addition, the volume contains a scientific description of the plants and animals of Sunnmøre as well as the economy, agriculture, livestock and fisheries. At the end there is a description of the people, their clothing, dialect, their daily food, the weddings, the births and deaths in the period from 1740 to 1760. In the second volume every single pastor and many individual farms are described.

His brother Ole Strøm in Copenhagen sent the first volume to the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné , who gave Strøm high praise for it. The work became a prime example for the topographical authors in Scandinavia. In 1784 he published a description of his parish Eiker. His brother also got him a microscope, probably the first of its kind in Norway, and his curiosity grew. He has written more than 50 papers, most of them with excellent drawings. Most of the papers deal with insects and mosses. He described 470 insect species, of which he provided 115 with drawings, and described the life stages of 94 species from egg to finished insect. How many of these are initial descriptions has not yet been determined. But for many of the species that have already been described, he brought up anatomical details that were not previously described. He thought of summarizing these descriptions in a book Fauna norvegica analogous to the work Flora norvegica by Gunnerus . He also described 112 types of moses, 70 of which he described for the first time. There are also excellent anatomical descriptions of copepods and the northern purple snail as well as a detailed description of the lemming migration during such an event in Volda in 1772.

Strøm's background was pietistic, but he was very taken with the ideas of the Enlightenment and therefore wrote many popular science texts from various fields. He had a firm belief in human freedom and reason and also campaigned for better schools and a Norwegian university.

Works

• Physisk og Oeconomisk Beskrivelse over Fogderiet Søndmør, beliggende i Bergens Stift i Norge , (Vol. 1: Sorø 1762; Vol. 2: 1766)
• "Description over Norske Indsecter". First part. In: Det Trondhiemske Selskabs Skrifter , Vol. 3. Copenhagen 1765. pp. 376-435
• "Description of Ti Norske Søe-Væxter". In: Det Kiøbenhavnske Selskab af Lærdoms og Videnskabers Elskere, Skrifter , Vol. 10, Copenhagen 1770, pp. 249-259.
• Tilskueren paa lands . Part I-II. Copenhagen 1775
• "Purple Sneglen (Buccinum Lapillus) beskreven dens ud- og indvortes Dele, including the Leve- og Yngle-Maade". In: Det Kongelige Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter , Vol. 11, Copenhagen 1777. pp. 1-46
• Physisk-Oeconomisk Beskrivelse over Eger - Præstegiæld i Aggershuus Stift i Norge Copenhagen 1784.
• "Om Sildelleller Rød-Aat" (copepods). In: Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter . Neue Sammlung, Vol. 1. Copenhagen 1784. pp. 185–192
• “Beskrivelse over Norske Indsecters”, Part Five. In: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter . Vol. 3. Copenhagen 1788. pp. 264-300
• "Fortegnelse over endel Norske Væxter, især Cryptogamister, som et Tillæg til Gunneri Flora Norvegica" First part. In: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter . Vol. 3. Copenhagen 1788. pp. 348-382
• "Nogle Indsect-Larver med deres Forvandlinger". Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter . Neue Sammlung, Vol. 2. Copenhagen 1788. pp. 375–400
• “Remarks about Oprettelsen af ​​et Universitet i Norge”. Anonymous supplement in: Norske Intelligentz-Sedler of July 24, 1793.
• "Fortegnelse over endeel Norske Væxter, især Cryptogamister". Supplement to Flora Norvegica des Gunnerus, Part Two. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers Selskabs Skrifter Vol. 4. Copenhagen 1793, pp. 369-397

literature

• Lars Walløe: Article “Hans Strøm” in: Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on March 27, 2010.
• H. Bryn: Hans Strøm . In: Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab Forhandlinger 1930, pp. 27 * –36 * ( PDF file )