Johann Julius Walbaum (30 June 1724 – 21 August 1799) was a German physician,

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and fauna

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

Works

Walbaum was from

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. In 2021 it surpa ...

. As an

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

, he was the first to describe many previously unknown fish species from remote parts of the globe, such as the

Great Barracuda ''Sphyraena barracuda'', commonly known as the great barracuda, is a species of barracuda, a genus of 27 species of large ray-finned fish found in subtropical oceans worldwide. In its natural habitat, the great barracuda is an apex predator. D ...

(''Sphyraena barracuda''), the

Chum salmon The chum salmon (''Oncorhynchus keta''), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus ''Oncorhynchus'' (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian Arctic ...

(''Oncorhynchus keta'') from the

Kamchatka River The Kamchatka () is the longest river in Kamchatka peninsula, located in Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East. It flows into the Pacific Ocean at the town Ust-Kamchatsk, on the east coast of Kamchatka. It is long, and has a drainage basin of ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, and the curimatá-pacú ('' Prochilodus marggravii'') from the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large Rivers of Brazil, river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon R ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Walbaum was one of the first to observe gloves as a preventative against infection in medical surgery. As early as 1767, he used gloves made from sheep intestines for vaginal exams.

Legacy

The Natural History Museum in Lübeck, opened in 1893, was based on Walbaum's extensive scientific collection. The museum's collection was, however, destroyed during the Bombing of Lübeck.

References

18th-century German naturalists German taxonomists 01 1724 births 1799 deaths German ichthyologists People from Wolfenbüttel People from Brunswick-Lüneburg 18th-century German physicians 18th-century German zoologists 18th-century German male writers {{Germany-med-bio-stub

Works

Legacy

See also

References