Johann Conrad Barchusen

Johann Conrad Barchusen in his laboratory

Johann Conrad Barchusen , actually Barkhausen , sometimes also Barchausen , (born March 16, 1666 in Horn in Lippe , † October 2, 1723 in Utrecht , Netherlands ) was a German pharmacist , chemist and doctor .

Life

Elementa chemiæ , 1718, p. 505

He was the eldest son of Horn's citizen and councilor Conrad Barkhausen († 1678) and his wife Catharina Hedwig Barkhausen († 1674), née Eichhof. After the early death of his parents in 1679, his grandparents also died. Barchusen came into the care of his uncle in Detmold , the count's archivist, librarian and procurator Franz Caspar Barkhausen (1636–1715), and learned Latin and ancient Greek . He then received training as a pharmacist in Berlin, Mainz and Vienna. In 1690 his first book, Pharmacopoeus synopticus , was published, a pharmaceutical textbook that had two further editions during his lifetime. In 1693 he returned to Horn, but had no prospects as a pharmacist and went on another journey that took him via Hungary to Italy . There Barchusen became the personal physician of the Venetian doge and fleet commander Francesco Morosini and accompanied him on a military expedition to Morea ( Peloponnese ). However, the 75-year-old Morosini died in January 1694 in his winter quarters in Naples .

Sonnenborgh Bastion in Utrecht, where Barchusen's chemical laboratory was built in 1695

On September 16, 1694, magistrate granted the city of Utrecht Barchusen permission at the local university courses in chemistry to give what he actually was not justified because he had not studied. The courses were so successful that, by resolution of April 8, 1695, the magistrate financed his own chemical laboratory in the Sonnenborgh bastion , the first of its kind in Utrecht. On October 3, 1698, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in medicine . At the same time he received a teaching position at the university. On March 19, 1703 he was appointed associate professor of chemistry, the first in Utrecht. In addition to his teaching activities, which he practiced until his death in 1723, he also ran his own medical practice.

On December 13, 1699, Barchusen married Marie Johanne van Pijlsweert († 1717), who came from a wealthy Utrecht family. The only son Conrad was born the following year, but died as a child.

power

Barchusen worked, among other things, with succinic acid . He performed analytical examinations of blood and bile. Its real significance, however, lies in the fact that it was one of the first representatives of the university subject chemistry, which until then had been regarded as a branch of medicine. Barchusen taught chemistry exclusively in his life and wrote four textbooks on it. Two other writings can be assigned to medicine.

Others

Barchusen was also interested in botanicals. The plant genus Pippau ( Crepis ) used to be called Barkhausia .

The Barchusens chemical laboratory in Utrecht was excavated by archaeologists in 2000 and can now be viewed in the Sonnenborgh Museum.

Works

Elementa chemiæ, 1718

• Pharmacopoeus synopticus, seu synopsis pharmaceutica, plerasque medicaminum, compositiones, ac formulas, eorumque conficiendi methodum exhibens , 1st edition, Frankfurt 1690, 2nd edition, Utrecht 1696, 3rd revised edition under the title Synopsis pharmadae , Leiden 1712
• Pyrosophia succincte atque breviter iatrochemiam, rem metallicam et chrysopoeiam pervestigans. Opus medicis, physicis, chemicis, pharmacopoeis, metallicis & non inutile , 1st edition, Leiden 1698, 2nd revised edition under the title Elementa chemiae, quibus subjuncta est confectura lapidis philosophici imaginibus repraesentata , Leiden 1718
• Acroamata, in quibus complura ad iatrochemiam atque physicam spectantia, jocunda rerum varietate, explicantur , Utrecht 1703
• Compendium rationicii chemici more geometrarum concinnatum , Leiden 1712
• Historia medicinae , 1st edition Amsterdam 1710, 2nd revised edition under the title De medicinae origine et progressu dissertationes , Utrecht 1723
• Collecta medicinae practicae generalis. Quibus subjunctus est Dialogus de optima medicorum secta , Amsterdam 1715

literature

• Roland Linde: Johann Conrad Barkhausen (1666–1723) - the most important son of the town of Horn in Lippe. A biographical and genealogical experiment on the first professor of chemistry at the University of Utrecht . In: Lippische Mitteilungen zur Geschichte und Landeskunde 63, 1994, pp. 69–83. Online version (PDF; 786 kB)
• Carl Joseph Bouginé : Handbuch der Allgemeine Litterargeschichte after Heumanns Grundriß , Volume 3, Orell, Geßner, Füßli and Comp., Zurich 1790, p. 597

Web links

Commons : Johann Conrad Barchusen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Een chemisch laboratorium op Sonnenborgh Text about the chemical laboratory Barchusens in the Sonnenborgh Bastion in Utrecht on the website of the Sonnenborgh Museum (Dutch)