Ladislau de Souza Mello Netto

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Ladislau de Souza Mello Netto (1887)

Ladislau de Souza Mello Netto (born June 27, 1838 in Maceió , † March 18, 1894 in Rio de Janeiro ) was a Brazilian botanist and director of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Life

In his childhood it became clear that Netto, son of the Portuguese businessman Francisco Netto, liked to draw. In 1854 he came to the imperial court and in 1857 he was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts, where he did not complete his training.

From 1859 he worked under Emmanuel Liais as a draftsman in a commission for hydrographic studies. His core area was the study and classification of botanical species.

He then received financial support to deepen his botanical studies in France. He took courses at the Sorbonne and the Jardin des Plantes and received his doctorate from the University of Paris .

In the following time Netto returned to Brazil and worked in the Museu Imperial e Nacional , today Museu Nacional da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (German National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro ).

Netto ended his career in 1893 and died in Rio de Janeiro the following year.

Work in the national museum

At the invitation of the Emperor of Brazil Dom Pedro II , Netto took over the management of the botanical department of the National Museum in 1866. In 1870 he was appointed deputy director. Ladislau Netto was first appointed acting museum director of the National Museum in 1874. In 1876, the emperor appointed him chief director, as his aim was to make the museum a showcase project for science and education. This made Ladislau Netto one of the most influential Brazilian scientists of his time. He was commissioned to expand and modernize the museum and to establish contacts with and employ international scientists.

In 1874, Ladislau Netto fell for a supposed Phoenician inscription from what is now the Brazilian state of Paraíba . Netto initially accepted it as an original, but when his mentor Ernest Renan declared it a fake, he backed off and accused foreigners of making it.

In 1876 Netto founded a scientific journal for the museum, the Archivos do Museu Nacional , which is still published today. To this end, he hired a few foreign scientists as traveling naturalists, including Fritz Müller , Emílio Goeldi , Hermann von Ihering , Wilhelm Schwacke and Orville Adalbert Derby .

His commitment to the interests of the National Museum also revealed questionable actions, for example he did not return a collection that he had borrowed from the Museu Paraense for an exhibition .

He also dealt with anthropology , especially biological anthropology and the question of the origins of the Brazilian aborigines. In this area, his records are little credit: he used science to confirm racist and elitist views, which was not uncommon for his time. An anthropological exhibition took place under his direction in 1882, which received international attention. During his term of office, among other things, the recovery and transport of the Bendegó meteorite , which was exhibited in the National Museum from 1888, fell.

As a result of the coup and the proclamation of the Republic of Brazil, the dethroned Emperor Dom Pedro II went into exile in Europe. As a result, Netto lost its most important supporter and influence.

Trivia

One species of vortex worms found in Brazil , Obama ladislavii , was named after Ladislau Netto. This species looks like a green leaf.

literature

  • Abelardo Duarte: Ladislau Netto (1838–1894). Imprensa Oficial, Maceió 1950. (biography, Portuguese).

Web links

Commons : Ladislau Netto  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no96066469.html , accessed on July 25, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c Regina Maria Macedo Costa Dantas, Nadja Paraense dos Santos: Quando um botânico se envolve com a antropologia: reflexões sobre Ladislau Netto no Museu Nacional. In: Scientiarum Historia IV . Rio de Janeiro 2011, pp. 653–660 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Museu Nacional (ed.): Os Diretores do Museu Nacional / UFRJ. Rio de Janeiro 2007, pp. 51–52 (Brazilian Portuguese, archive.org [PDF; 639 kB; accessed July 26, 2020])
  4. ^ The Paraíba (Parahyba) Stone
  5. ↑ a b Nelson Sanjad: A Coruja de Minerva: o Museu Paraense entre o Colonies ea Czech (1866 to 1907) . Instituto Brasileiro de Museus, Brasília [u. a.] 2010, ISBN 978-85-63078-00-1 . ( Digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Blog entry by Piter Kehoma Boll, a (co-) author of several publications on land planarians. Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Netto, Ladislau de Souza Mello
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Netto, Ladislau
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian botanist
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Maceió
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1894
Place of death Rio de Janeiro