Jean Balthasar Schnetzler

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Jean Balthasar Schnetzler (baptized as Johann Balthasar Schnetzler ; born November 3, 1823 in Gächlingen , † June 29, 1896 in Lausanne ) was a Swiss scientist and father of André Schnetzler .

Life and education

Jean Balthasar Schnetzler comes from a widespread family in the canton of Schaffhausen . His father Balthasar (1779–1850) was a watchman, his mother Verena a née Müller. In 1851, a year after his father's death, he married Fanny Berdez, daughter of the businessman André Berdez. Fanny's younger brother was Louis Berdez , who later theologian , jurist and National Council - politicians was.

After his regular school career, Schnetzler went to the Stuttgart Polytechnic in the training year 1840/41 , which advanced to a technical university in 1876. He then worked as a French teacher at the grammar school Schaffhausen in order to take up natural science studies at the University of Geneva from 1844 to 1847 . During this time the first zoological articles were published. From 1847 to 1867 Schnetzler was a teacher of natural sciences at the Progymnasium Vevey . During this time he became friends with Henri Nestlé , whom he met through the same efforts to supply the town of Vevey with gas lighting. In the period that followed, he continuously supported Nestlé in the development of infant food made from cow's milk, which was marketed under the name Kindermehl in autumn 1867. From the apprenticeship year 1857/58 Schnetzler was a lecturer, from 1864 ao. , from 1871–91 full professor, professor of botany at the Lausanne Academy. During this time he set up a botanical collection there. From 1879 to 1881 he was appointed rector.

The collaboration with Nestlé intensified in the mid-1850s, as Nestlé trusted Schnetzler's advice as a food expert. Schnetzler can be assumed to have a practical entrepreneurial interest. Schnetzler had already dealt with plant biology and human nutrition and held public lectures about them. Schnetzler's son, James Charles Louis, born on February 27, 1867, was born prematurely and was sickly and weak. The worried father approached Nestlé with the request to give him the new drug for samples on the now six or eight month old baby. The little one recovered after just a few days. This recovery, which quickly got around as a “miracle” in the small town, was the best advertisement for Nestlé's baby meal that Nestlé could use as a “startup”; sales multiplied without any noteworthy advertising. During this time he also came into contact with the botanist Carl Cramer (1831–1901), with whom he maintained a lively correspondence.

The phylloxera plague , which he took part in combating as a scientist , also fell during his active teaching activities . Jean Dufour (1860–1903), his successor as professor of natural sciences at the University of Lausanne , is one of his students who have dealt with the subject of viticulture pests .

Web links

literature

  • Paul-Émile Pilet: Les naturalistes et biologistes à Lausanne, recherches, enseignements et sociétés savantes en pays vaudois de 1537 à nos jours , Payot Lausanne Scientifique 1991, ISBN 978-2-60103-095-2 ; Pp. 83-86
  • Albert Pfiffner: Henri Nestlé: From Frankfurt pharmacist's assistant to Swiss pioneer entrepreneur. NZZ-Verlag Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85823-593-8

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City Archives Schaffhausen , List of Cantonal Councils (1843)
  2. ^ A b c Albert Pfiffner: Henri Nestlé
  3. ^ Letter from Schnetzler to Carl Cramer (1890), ETH Library Zurich, Hs 100: 373. doi : 10.7891 / e-manuscripta-1891
  4. ^ Necrologists and biographies of deceased members of the Swiss Society for Natural Research and directories of their publications , edited by the Denkschrift-Kommission, Zurich 1905.
personal data
SURNAME Schnetzler, Jean Balthasar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schnetzler, Johann Balthasar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Gächlingen
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1896
Place of death Lausanne