John Edwards Holbrook
John Edwards Holbrook (born December 30, 1794 in Beaufort , South Carolina , † September 8, 1871 in Norfolk , Massachusetts ) was an American doctor and zoologist . He is best known for his contributions to the herpetology of North America. His author's abbreviation is Holbrook .
Life
Regarding Holbrook's date of birth there are different statements: December 31, 1794, 1795, December 30, 1796, December 31, 1796. However, December 30, 1794 is the most common in the literature.
Holbrook grew up in Wrentham , Massachusetts, his father's hometown, and earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1815 and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1818 with a medical degree. He practiced briefly in Boston, but then traveled to Europe to continue his medical training in London and Edinburgh and to pursue scientific studies in England, France and Germany. At the Jardin des Plantes he studied herpetology with André Duméril and Gabriel Bibron and ichthyology with Georges Cuvier and Achille Valenciennes .
In 1822 Holbrook returned to the United States and settled in Charleston , South Carolina , where he helped found the South Carolina Medical College (now the Medical University of South Carolina ) and became Professor of Anatomy in 1824 , a position which he held for about 30 years. At the same time, he ran a successful local doctor's practice, but showed an aversion to his own work in the fields of obstetrics and surgery . More than 30 slaves lived in his household and on his plantation . Holbrook had a close friendship with Louis Agassiz .
Holbrook's most important work was North American Herpetology , which first appeared in four volumes from 1836 and 1840 and in a second edition from 1842 in five richly illustrated volumes. The total of 17 illustrators included the Italian J. Sera, John H. Richard and Maria Martin, who was also involved in the illustration of John James Audubon's work Birds of America . One of the first natural history works was North American Herpetology with hand-colored lithographs . Other works by Holbrrok were American Herpetology (1835), Southern Ichthyology (1847) and Ichthyology of South Carolina (1855 and 1860).
After the publication of North American Herpetology , Holbrook toured Europe again with his wife, where he met many of his previous companions.
During the Civil War , Holbrook served as a military doctor in the Confederate States Army and as an examiner for doctors and surgeons in South Carolina. In the turmoil of war he lost not only his material wealth, but also his collection of zoological specimens and his scientific library.
In 1839 Holbrook was elected to the American Philosophical Society , in 1845 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1868 the first Southerner to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences .
Holbrook had been married since 1827 to Harriott Pinckney Rutledge, daughter of a prominent plantation owner, granddaughter of John Rutledge , President of South Carolina and a signatory to the United States Constitution , and great-niece of Edward Rutledge , Governor of South Carolina and one of the signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence . Holbrook's marriage was childless. After his wife's death in 1863, he lived with relatives in Massachusetts. He died of a stroke at his sister's home in Norfolk, Massachusetts . His grave is in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.
The eastern mosquito fish ( Gambusia holbrooki ), the spotted chain snake ( Lampropeltis holbrooki ), the eastern blade root ( Scaphiopus holbrookii ), Diplodus holbrookii (a sea bream ) and the genus Holbrookia ( pigeon iguanas ) are named after Holbrook . Obsolete taxa are the red-eared slider ( Trachemys holbrooki today Trachemys scripta elegans ), Pomotis holbrooki (now a Lepomis type of sunfish ) Alutera holbrooki , Echeneis holbrooki (now naucrates Echeneis ), Acipenser holbrookii (now the Atlantic sturgeon , Acipenser oxyrinchus ), Ophidion holbrooki (today Ophidion barbatum ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b John Edwards Holbrook in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ↑ Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature (quoted from Gill, 1903)
- ^ Daniel Petterson: John Edwards Holbrook . In: Daniel Patterson, Roger Thompson, J. Scott Bryson (Eds.): Early American Nature Writers . Greenwood Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-0-313-34680-4 , pp. 192–199 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ RD Worthington, PH Worthington: John Edwards Holbrook, father of American herpetology. Pp. Xiii-xxvii. In: JE Holbrook: North American Herpetology. 2nd ed. 1842, reprint 1976. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (Ed.): Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology series.
- ↑ a b J. E. Holbrook. In: nasonline.org. National Academy of Sciences , accessed February 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Holbrook, John Edwards . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 3 : Grinnell - Lockwood . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1887, p. 230 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- ^ Reese E. Griffin, Jr .: Holbrook, John Edwards . In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography . 2008 ( encyclopedia.com ).
- ^ Lester D. Stephens: Holbrook, John Edwards . In: American National Biography . doi : 10.1093 / anb / 9780198606697.article.1300770 ( anb.org ).
- ^ Theodore Gill: John Edwards Holbrook 1794-1871 . In: National Academy of Sciences (Ed.): Biographical Memoirs . 1903 ( nasonline.org [PDF; 1.4 MB ]).
- ↑ John E. Holbrook. In: amphilsoc.org. American Philosophical Society, accessed February 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter H. (PDF; 1.2 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved February 3, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Holbrook, John Edwards |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American zoologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 30, 1794 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Beaufort , South Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 8, 1871 |
| Place of death | Norfolk , Massachusetts |