Karl Heinrich Köstlin

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Carl Heinrich Köstlin (born April 23, 1755 in Brackenheim , † September 8, 1783 in Stuttgart ) was a German professor of natural history at the Hohen Karlsschule Stuttgart.

Live and act

The son of the ducal councilor and manorial asset manager Tobias Köstlin (1713–1761) and nephew of the theologian Cosmann Friedrich Köstlin attended the Evangelical Seminary in Maulbronn after passing the state examination and then moved to the University of Tübingen , where he worked with Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr , among others . Studied chemistry and botany. Köstlin undertook several research trips to Switzerland and Italy, where he explored the then unexplored island of Elba and the geology of Vesuvius , where he was able to update the previous theories of Italian scientists about the formation of volcanic rock.

In 1775, after having electrically stimulated chicken and butterfly eggs in several series of experiments, Köstlin completed his medical studies with the dissertation “ de effectibus electricitatis in quaedam corpora organica ”. When the High Charles School in Stuttgart was elevated to a university by Emperor Josef II in 1780/81 , Köstlin was appointed professor of natural history and teacher of internal and external medicine. Here he was able to publish a few more writings, but died unexpectedly three years later at the age of only 27 of amoebic dysentery .

Koestlin offered his entire collection to Duke Carl Eugen on March 29, 1783 for 4,000 guilders. But since he died six months later, the acquisition only came about through the inheritance. Individual documents on the botanical collection can be found today in the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart.

Fonts (selection)

  • Extract from the diary of a naturalist, on a trip through Switzerland and part of Italy: together with a letter from Carl Heinrich Köstlin to Merck / Johann Anton Merck; Facs of the edition in Wieland's Teutschem Merkur. 1779. (with an afterward from Kai Torsten Kanz. Basilisken-Presse, Marburg / Lahn 1995, ISBN 3-925347-37-2 )
  • de effectibus electricitatis in quaedam corpora organica. Dissertation. Tuebingen 1775.
  • of the method of imitating in an inexpensive way the mineral water by means of the fixed air, through art, just as effective as the natural ones. Stuttgart 1780.
  • Fasciculus anim adversionum physiologici atque mineralogico-chemici argumenti. Stuttgart 1780.
  • Peter Moscatis: New observations and experiments on blood and on the origin of animal warmth. Translation by Carl Heinrich Köstlin from the Italian. Stuttgart 1780.
  • Ermenegildo Pini: Mineralogical observations on the iron mine near Rio and in other areas of the island of Elba. Translation by Carl Heinrich Köstlin from the Italian. Gebauer, hall 1780.

literature

  • Maria Köstlin: The book of the Köstlin family. Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 1931.
  • Stefan J. Dietrich: Prof. Dr. med. Carl Heinrich Köstlin (1755–1783). In memory of an important Brackenheimer. In: Zabergäuvereins magazine. Issue 1, 1997, pp. 8-16.
  • Kai Torsten Kanz: What a wonderful country, a true paradise. The research trip of Carl Heinrich Köstlin (1755–1783). In: Italy in the context of German-Italian scientific relations in the late 18th century. In: Negotiations on the History and Theory of Biology. Volume 11, German Society for the History and Theory of Biologists, 2003.
  • Johann Georg Meusel: Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Volume 7, pp. 233/234.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry in the holdings of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives
  2. ↑ Martin Engelhardt, Siegmund Seybold: The collectors of fern and flowering plants of the herbarium of the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart (STU). In: Annual books of the Society for Natural History in Württemberg. 165, part 2, Stuttgart 2009, p. 85, picture p. 86. ISSN  0368-2307 .
personal data
SURNAME Köstlin, Karl Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Köstlin, Carl Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German natural historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Brackenheim
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1783
Place of death Stuttgart