Benedykt Tadeusz Dybowski (12 May 183331 January 1930) was a Polish

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

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

Life

Benedykt Dybowski was born in Adamaryni, within the

Minsk Governorate Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

to Polish nobility. He was the brother of naturalist Władysław Dybowski and the cousin of the French explorer Jean Dybowski. He studied at Minsk High School, and later medicine at

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

(earlier Dorpat) University in present-day

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. He later studied at Wroclaw University and went on expeditions to seek and study oceanic fishes and

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s. He became a professor of zoology at the Warsaw Main School. In 1864 he was arrested and condemned to death for taking part in the Polish

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

. His sentence was later reduced to 12 years in

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 ...

. He started studying the natural history of Siberia and in 1866 a governor Muraviov dismissed Dybowski from hard labour ('' katorga''), renewed his civil rights and proposed him to work as a doctor in hospital. He later settled in the small village Kultuk and began a detailed study of Baikal Lake with some technical support from the

Russian Geographical Society The Russian Geographical Society (), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography, ethnography, ecology and stati ...

. He served as a medical doctor for the indigenous population of

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

, the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

, the Commander Islands, Bering Island, making four trips per year around the populated areas there. After returning from Asia he continued research work at Lwów University (Lemberg). He was a president of the Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists (1886–87). In 1927 the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union elected Dybowski as a member-correspondent. Apart from that in 1921 Dybowski was given an honorary doctorate by the Warsaw's University, and in 1923 by the University of Wilno. On Dybowski's 95th birthday he was congratulated by the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Dybowski spent the last years of his life in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

. Dybowski died at the age of 96. He is buried in

(present-day Lviv) on the Łyczakowski Cemetery among the participants of the Polish Uprising of 1863. Most of his collection of zoological and botanical specimens is now in the Lwów Zoological museum. An amphipod (''Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis''), supposedly from Lake Baikal and named by him was once considered the longest scientific name. However, that name is no longer considered valid. In February 2014, traveller Jacek Pałkiewicz unveiled a memorial plaque to Dybowski in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski.Pałkiewicz odsłania tablicę Dybowskiego na Kamczatce
at Rzeczpospolita, 6 February 2014.

Taxon described by him

*See :Taxa named by Benedykt Dybowski

Taxon named in his honor

*'' Comephorus dybowskii'', the little Baikal oilfish, is a species of freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Cottidae, the typical sculpins. This fish is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

in Russia.

References

External links

Biography

The diary of Dr. Benedykt Dybowski from 1862 until 1878

"Dybowski 1863"
short movie by Maciej Pawlicki about the Dybowskis's arrest and the death penalty trial for taking part in the 1863 Polish

against the occupying

at the Warsaw Main School while being the assistant professor there.
1957 Polish 2.50 zloty postage stamp with Benedykt Dybowski

Benedykt Dybowski with his late-age daughter
archive.org)
Retirement of Benedykt Dybowski from the Lwów University in Polish 1906 popular press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dybowski, Benedykt 1833 births 1930 deaths People from Valozhyn district People from Vileysky Uyezd People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent Polish naturalists Naturalists from the Russian Empire Polish general practitioners Explorers of Siberia Polish participants of the January Uprising Polish exiles in the Russian Empire Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Members of the Lwów Scientific Society Members of the Polish Academy of Learning Burials at Lychakiv Cemetery

Life

Taxon described by him

Taxon named in his honor

See also

References

External links