Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz

Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz, Frontispiece to the General German Library, 1791

Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz , also Buchholz, Bucholtz (* December 23, 1734 in Bernburg , † December 16, 1798 in Weimar ) was a German medical officer , pharmacist , botanist , chemist and advisor to Goethe on scientific issues.

Life

Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz was born on December 23, 1734 in Bernburg as the second son of corporal Georg Ernst Bucholz and his wife Magdalena Bucholz. After attending the city school in Bernburg and working as a typist, Bucholz began an apprenticeship as a pharmacy assistant in Magdeburg in 1748 . After completing his apprenticeship and hiking, he got a job at the court pharmacy in Weimar in 1754. Supported by his boss, the doctor and pharmacist Christian Jacobi, Bucholz studied medicine at the University of Jena from 1761 . On April 14, 1763 he defended his inaugural dissertation . In 1766 he became a foreign member of the " Churbaierische Akademie ". In 1769 he was accepted as a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

After obtaining the venia practicandi , Bucholz was appointed physician for the offices of Weimar and Berka and court medicus for Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach on July 7, 1777 by the Duchess Anna Amalia .

Bucholz, respected in his office, received promotions and other offices, such as his appointment to the Ducal Weimar mountains in 1782 . In his function as court medic, Bucholz also looked after the ducal family. To this end, he officially headed the court pharmacy from 1773, which was owned by his first wife Johann Maria, née Söllner, from 1767. In the pharmacy he trained his assistant Johann Friedrich August Göttling between 1774 and 1785 , who was succeeded by Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff from 1784 .

Bucholz earned special merits in his official partial function as poor doctor and prison doctor . Here he improved access to medicines and hygiene, the latter by improving the ventilation of prisons and hospitals.

Bucholz already dealt with inorganic chemistry in his dissertation on sulfur minerals. He continuously published the results of his research and presented them to the Erfurt Academy . Between 1791 and 1793 Bucholz was an active and supporting member of Goethe's Friday Society . From 1794 he was an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg .

From 1788 professional difficulties emerged as a result of the double function as public health officer and sole pharmacy owner in Weimar. Due to initial allegations of having kept drug prices high by prescribing medication to the poor, Bucholz resigned from his position as a poor doctor. His resistance to the establishment of a second pharmacy in Weimar led to his dismissal as court doctor in 1795 due to the Duke's annoyance .

Bucholz died on December 16, 1798 in Weimar as a result of a chronic intestinal disease. He was buried in the Jakobsfriedhof in Weimar .

As a chemist, he was a supporter of the phlogiston theory and an opponent of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier . In 1783 he discovered ethyl formate. He published a lot on pharmacy and chemistry, including poisonous barium compounds, cleaning liquids with charcoal, antiseptic properties of carbon dioxide, Prussian blue, sulfur minerals, production of phosphorus and hydrogen and oxygen production with steam on red-hot zinc, production of chlorine and sugar cleaning.

He was the uncle of Christian Friedrich Bucholz .

Fonts

• Chemical experiments on Meyersche Acidum pingue , Weimar, 1771.
• News of the prevailing spotted and Frisian fever , Weimar, 1772.
• Chemical experiments on some of the newest indigenous antiseptic substances , Weimar, 1776.
• On the antiseptic properties of the developed or so-called fixed air , Erfurt, 1776.
• Chemical investigation and dissolution of indigo as it is seduced in action and use by dyers , Weimar, 1778.
• Contributions to the legal Arzney law and to the medical police . 4 volumes. Weimar, 1782. ( digitized by the Digital Library of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
• News of some distilled oils, probably kept safe for more than 40 years , Erfurt, 1784.
• Toxic properties of barium compounds , Weimar, 1792.
• Chemical research on the alleged poisonous properties of withite, heavy earth and hydrochloric heavy earth , Weimar, 1792.
• Remarks on the foul air in prisons, penitentiaries, hospitals, etc. and the improvement of these foul air types , Erfurt, 1794.

literature

• Hans-Peter Klöcking: On the 275th birthday of Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz, memorial essay for members of the Academy, in: Akademie zu Erfurt - Yearbook 2009 - Commemorative essays, pp. 19–26.
• Franz Lorenz: The Benda family of musicians. Volume 1: Franz Benda . Wilhelm de Gruyter, Berlin 1967, pages 80 and 81.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bavarian Academy of Sciences: Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz , members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
2. ^ Member entry of Wilhelm Heinrich Bucholtz at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on March 26, 2016.
3. ↑ JDF Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann, Jena 1860, p. 228 Archives
4. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 7, 2015 (Russian). 
5. ↑ Hans-Peter Klöcking: On the 275th birthday of Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz memorial essay for members of the academy, in: Akademie zu Erfurt - Yearbook 2009 - commemorative essays, pp. 19-26.
6. ↑ Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 73

Web links

Wikisource: Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Bucholz  - Sources and full texts