Wilhelm Olbers Focke

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Wilhelm Olbers Focke (born April 5, 1834 in Bremen , † September 29, 1922 in Bremen) was a German doctor and botanist . Its botanical author abbreviation is " Focke ".

biography

Focke was the son of the judge Dr. Wilhelm Focke (1805–1865), great-grandson of the doctor and astronomer Wilhelm Olbers and the brother of the museum's founder Johann Focke . He attended the old grammar school in Bremen . From 1853 to 1858 he studied medicine at the University of Bonn , the University of Würzburg , the University of Vienna and the University of Berlin . He did his doctorate in Würzburg as Dr. med. He then worked from 1858 to 1860 in the insane asylum founded by Friedrich Engelken (1744-1815) in Bremen- Oberneuland . From 1861 he was a general practitioner in Bremen, from 1864 to 1867 head physician at the Bremen hospital (as successor to Carl Eduard Lorent, followed by Friedrich Scholz), from 1871 to 1886 police doctor and also from 1874 to 1901 family doctor at the Oslebshausen prison in Bremen - Groepelingen . From 1886 he was appointed to the health council and from 1901 to 1904 he was the managing director of this institution as medical councilor.

From 1870 to 1874 was a member of the Bremen citizenship as a representative of the 1st class in the Bremen eight-class suffrage .

The merchant and art lover Julius Focke (1882–1937) was his son.

Works

He became known through his publications on psychiatry and health care. In 1855 he published a botanical work, Flora Bremensis . He also wrote writings on geology, cultural history, ancestry and several biographies. Many papers were published by the Natural Science Association in Bremen .

In 1881 his important work Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge, a contribution to the biology of plants , an overview work that summarized the knowledge of the time. In the work he coined the genetic term xenia as a change in the seed of a plant that is recessive in relation to certain genes . He also introduced the concept of pseudogamy . The work is also significant because it was one of the few contemporary works to quote Gregor Mendel's work. The book mentions Mendel in several places. In one sentence (p. 110) he also notes that Mendel believed he had found constant numerical relationships among the offspring: Mendel's numerous crosses gave results that were very similar to Knight 's, but Mendel believed constant numerical relationships between the types of half-breeds Find. After the rediscovery of Mendel's doctrine, this work was mainly used to look up Mendel's original writings, which had been published in a remote place (negotiations of the Natural Research Association in Brno). Charles Darwin received a copy in November 1880, but he largely unread it to GJ Romanes, who wrote the article Hybridism in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Honors

In his honor the genus Fockeanthus H.R.Wehrh. named from the plant family of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae).

bibliography

  • About the multiplication of willows . 1872.
  • Synopsis Ruborum Germaniae . 1877.
  • The means of propagation of the legumes . 1878.
  • The mixed-breed plants, contribution to the biology of plants . Berlin: Borntraeger 1881. Archives
  • The means of propagation of the cap mushrooms . 1883.
  • The germination of Kerria and the natural group of Kerrieae . 1892.
  • Plant biological sketches . 1893.
  • Absence of tubes in Utricularia . 1893.
  • A pear with two leaves . 1894.
  • Plant biological sketches . 1895.
  • Setback in a hydrangea . 1897.
  • About the seedlings of stone and pome fruit plants . 1900.
  • Fruit set in pears . 1909.
  • Species Ruborum. Monographiae generis Rubi Prodromus . Vol. 1, 1910.
  • Species Ruborum. Monographieae generis Rubi Prodromus . Vol. 2, 1911.
  • Species Ruborum. Monographieae generis Rubi Prodromus . Vol. 3, 1914.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example Erich Tschermak-Seysenegg communicated this in his memoirs in 1958. Milo Keynes, The Introduction of Mendelism in Human Genetics, in: Milo Keynes, AFW Edwards, Robert Peel, A Century of Mendelism in Human Genetics, CRC Press 2004, p. 5
  2. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

Wikisource: Wilhelm Olbers Focke  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Focke, Wilhelm Olbers
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Focke, WHERE
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1922
Place of death Bremen