Johann Wilhelm Spengel

Johann Wilhelm Spengel around 1912

Johann Wilhelm Spengel (born February 19, 1852 in Hamburg , † April 13, 1921 in Gießen ) was a German zoologist in the field of helminthology .

Life

After graduating from high school , he studied biology and, after completing his doctorate and habilitation, was appointed full professor of zoology at the Grand Ducal Hessian Ludwig University of Giessen , the Ludoviciana. In 1886 he began as the editor of the specialist journal Zoological Yearbooks . At the same time, he was also director of the Zoological Institute in Gießen, where his research focused on acorn worms and the morphology of fins, for example .

In 1887 he became a member of the Leopoldina . During his many years of teaching he was, among other things, the doctoral supervisor of August Köhler for his dissertation on the taxonomy of limpets (1893) and of Jan Versluys for his doctoral thesis on the subject of the middle and outer ear sphere of the lacertilia and rhynchocephalia (1898).

Between 1897 and 1898 Spengel was also rector of the Ludwig University.

In addition, he was first secretary between 1890 and 1901, then first vice-president and finally 1904 and 1905 president of the German Zoological Society (DZG) and again from 1906 to 1907 its first vice-president. In 1900 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1914 he became a member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala and then in 1915 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm . In 1918 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Publications

His most important publications include The Darwinian Theory: Directory (1872), The Enteropneusten of the Gulf of Naples and the Adjacent Sections of the Sea (1893), Expediency and Adaptation (1898), About Swim Bladders, Lungs and Garter Bags of Vertebrates (1904) and New Contributions to Knowledge of the latest entero. A new type of entero from the Gulf of Naples (1904). He also published a German edition of Thomas Henry Huxley's book A Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals , published in 1871, with the title Grundzüge der Anatomie der Invertebrated Animals .

Together with Friedrich Poske , Spengel worked on the translation of Edward Burnett Tylor : Primitive Culture. Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom (London 1871) into German (Tylor, Edward Burnett: Die Beginn der Cultur. Investigations into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art and custom, with participation of the author translated into German by Johann Wilhelm Spengel and Friedrich Poske, 2 vols., Leipzig 1873).

In 1907 he published the textbook Studies on the Enteropnews of the Siboga Expedition along with observations on related species , in which he dealt with the findings of acorn worms during the expedition led by Max Wilhelm Carl Weber from 1899 to 1900.

Web links and sources

• Literature by and about Johann Wilhelm Spengel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography in Nordisk familjebok , 1917, columns 659-660

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Wilhelm Spengel
2. ↑ Rectorates of the University of Gießen (Munich Historical Commission)
3. ↑ Board of the German Zoological Society - General Overview from 1890 - 2012 ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Members of the previous academies. Wilhelm Spengel. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on June 18, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 229.
6. ↑ Regnum Anomalia  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.