William Houstoun (medic)
William Houstoun , also William Houston (* 1695 or 1703 or 1704 in Scotland , † August 14, 1733 in Jamaica ) was a British doctor and botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Houst. ".
Life
William Houstoun traveled to the West Indies as a ship's doctor before he began studying medicine with Herman Boerhaave in Leiden in 1727 . He graduated there in 1729.
He presumably lived in a settlement in Jamaica on Campeachy Bay. From there he traveled to Jamaica, Havana in Cuba , Venezuela and Vera Cruz . From his travels he sent seeds to Philip Miller in Chelsea , who raised plants from them in the Chelsea Physic Garden and also herbarized them.
On January 18, 1733 Houstoun was elected a member of the Royal Society , but died a short time later from the consequences of the climate in Jamaica. In the same year his first description of the plant species Dorstenia contrajerva L. appeared in the Philosophical Transactions .
He left his herbarium, drawings, and manuscripts to Philip Miller. Sir Joseph Banks later acquired the material from Miller and published it in 1781 under the title Reliquiae Houstounianae . According to the system of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort , 15 genera and 11 species, all from Vera Cruz, were described for the first time.
Honor taxon
Jan Frederik Gronovius named in his honor the genus Houstonia the plant family of the redness plants (Rubiaceae). Carl von Linné later took over this name.
Fonts
- An account of the Contrayerva . In: Philosophical Transactions . Volume 37, No. 421, 1733, pp. 195-198.
- Experimenta de Perforatione Thoracis, ejusque in Respiratione Effectibus (English: Six experiments to show the effects of the perforation of the thorax on respiration). In: Philosophical Transactions . Volume 39, No. 441, 1738, p. 230.
- Reliquiae Houstounianae seu plantarum in America meridionale… . London 1781, (online) - published posthumously by Joseph Banks
proof
literature
- John Aikin: General Biography . 10 volumes, 1799–1815.
- http://linnaeus.c18.net/Letters/letter_text.php?id_letter=L0055
- The History of the Collections Contained in the Natural History Department ... . Adamant Media Corporation, Volume 1, 2000. ISBN 140218140X , p. 156.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1695 is mentioned as a possible year of birth in the Dictionary of National Biography from 1891, the Royal Society and the International Plant Name Index (IPNI) also name this year in their records. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls with stand 2004, the year 1704 as year of birth, the American Library of Congress called in their record 1703 as year of birth and indicates faulty in circulation information on birth year.
- ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 93
- ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 42, (online) .
further reading
- George Simonds Boulger : Houston, William (1695? –1733) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 27: Hindmarsh - Hovenden. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London, 1891, pp 433 - 434 (English).
- GS Boulger: Houstoun, William (c.1704-1733). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004 (rev. DE Allen).
Web links
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for William Houstoun (medic) at the IPNI
- Entry for Houstoun, William (c 1695–1733) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Houstoun, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Houston, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British physician and botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1695 or 1703 or 1704 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 14, 1733 |
| Place of death | Jamaica |