William Marshall (zoologist)

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William Marshall

William Adolf Ludwig Marshall (born September 6, 1845 in Weimar ; † September 16, 1907 in Leipzig ) was a German zoologist and comparative anatomist .

Life

His father James Marshall (1808-1881), born in County Down , was a teacher of English literature and secretary to Sophie of Orange-Nassau , his mother was a Dutch woman. Together with his brother James Marshall (1838-1902) he was educated in Weimar and spent the last years of his high school in Werningerode . He began studying medicine and natural sciences in Göttingen and Jena . A trip to his mother's homeland in 1867 gave him a job as the first assistant at the Natural History Museum in Leiden under the ornithologist Hermann Schlegel from Altenburg . During his time in Leiden he also obtained his doctorate. phil. at Göttingen University in absentia about the bony cranial humps of birds. In 1872 he returned to Weimar as his father's successor and private secretary to the Grand Duchess, but continued to devote himself to his zoological studies. He dealt with the conflict between his view of life - he was an advocate of the development theory of Charles Darwin and his German follower Ernst Haeckel - and that of his courtly environment in the work on the flea, published under the pseudonym W.AL Philopsyllus .

He moved to Leipzig in 1879. He only worked for a short time as an assistant at the museum and completed his habilitation in 1880 as a private lecturer at the university there. From 1880 he was associate professor and from 1885 full professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the philosophy faculty of the University of Leipzig . In the first few years he went on excursions with his audience, but later suffered from dizziness . Due to overstretched ligaments as a result of a sprained foot, he had been handcuffed to a crutch for the past few years.

Marshall, who married early, had already lost his first wife before arriving in Leipzig with his second wife and a child. Due to his health, he could hardly leave his house, so that he reflected on his writing activity. Most of the work was popular science publications, as these supplemented his small pension from public service; For strictly scientific work he lacked the muse and the opportunity to go on excursions and trips. Marshall contributed to the 3rd and 4th editions of Brehms Tierleben and served as a speaker for the Society for the Spread of Popular Education.

On April 19, 1876 he was accepted into the Leopoldina .

Works (selection)

As an author:

  • Over the bony cranial humps of birds . Submitted to the Philosophical Faculty in Göttingen in October 1871 as a dissertation. AC Kruseman, Haarlem and CF Winter, Leipzig, 1872 ( google.de ).
  • The flea is the black spiritus familiaris of the female sex, illuminated from a literary and scientific perspective . Huschke, Weimar 1880.
  • The history of the discovery of freshwater polyps . Inaugural lecture. Quandt & Handel, Leipzig 1885.
  • Walks of a naturalist . With drawings by Albert Wagen in Basel. Publishing house of the literary annual report (Artur Seemann), Leipzig 1888.
  • The deep sea and its life . With 4 clay tablets and 114 illustrations in the text. Ferdinand Hirt & Son, Leipzig 1888.
  • Life and driving of the ants . Richard Freese, Leipzig 1889.
  • Picture atlas on the zoology of lower animals . With 292 woodcuts based on drawings by F. Etzold, R. Koch, G. Mützel, E. Schmidt, J. Schmidt and others Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna 1899.
  • Newly opened, wondrous medicine box containing all sorts of thorough news, as our forefathers kept with the healing powers of animals. A. Twietmeyer, Leipzig 1894. Facsimile edition: F. Englisch, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-88140-091-5 .
  • New walks of a naturalist . Second row. With drawings by Marie Gey-Heinze . Publishing house by EA Seemann, Leipzig 1907.

As translator:

  • John Lubbock : The senses and the spiritual life of animals, especially insects . Translated by William Marshall. With 118 woodcut illustrations. Authorized edition. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1889.
  • Jean Albert Gaudry : The Ancestors of Mammals in Europe . Translated from the French by William Marshall. With 40 illustrations printed in the text. JJ Weber's publishing house, Leipzig 1891.
  • Henri Gadeau de Kerville: The luminous animals and plants . Translated from the French by W. Marshall. With 27 illustrations printed in the text and a cover picture. JJ Weber's publishing bookstore, Leipzig 1893.
  • Paul Girod: Animal States and Animal Societies . Translated from the French and edited by Prof. Dr. William Marshall. Authorized edition. Hermann Seemann's successor, Leipzig 1901.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas W. Daum: Science popularization in the 19th century. Civil culture, scientific education and the German public 1848–1914 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56551-6 , p. 173 f., 181, 325, 391-393, 500 .
personal data
SURNAME Marshall, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marshall, William Adolf Ludwig (full name); Philopsyllus, WAL (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and comparative anatomist
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Weimar
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1907
Place of death Leipzig