Johann Heinrich Blasius (7 October 1809 – 26 May 1870) was a German

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

. His sons, Rudolf Heinrich Paul Blasius (1842-1907) and August Wilhelm Heinrich Blasius (1845–1912) were

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Biography

Blasius was born on 7 October 1809. In 1836, he was appointed as a professor at the Collegium Carolinum in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

. In 1840, he founded the Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Braunschweig. In 1859, he was appointed as the director of the newly founded Naturhistorisches Museum (Braunschweig) and in 1866 also of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.

Writings

He was the author of two major books on

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

s: "''Fauna der Wirbelthiere Deutschlands''" (1857), and "''Die wirbelthiere Europa's''" (Vertebrates of Europe, with Alexander von Keyserling, 1840). He also wrote "''Reise im Europäischen Russland in den Jahren 1840 und 1851''" (Journey to

European Russia European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...

in the years 1840 & 1851). In 1862, ornithologist

Alfred Newton Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous public ...

(1829–1907) published "A list of the birds of Europe", a translation based on Blasius' research. Blasius was also an early contemporary critic of Darwin's ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

'': :I have also seldom read a scientific book which makes such wide-ranging conclusions with so few facts supporting them. … Darwin wants to show that kinds come from other kinds erman ''Arten'' I regard this as somewhat of a highhanded hypothesis, because he argues using unproven possibilities, without even naming a single example of the origin of a particular species. … :Zoologists who engage in empirical research would generally regard as valid only that which can be observed in an experiment or in free-living nature. And what one observes there is that the offspring of a plant or animal inevitably resembles the parents, i.e. they belong to the same kind. The immovability of the boundaries of the kinds is, for most of us, a law of nature.Director Blasius interview: “Evolution is only a Hypothesis”, 1859, cited in ''

Braunschweiger Zeitung The ''Braunschweiger Zeitung'' is a daily regional newspaper serving Braunschweig, Germany and surrounding towns and villages in Brunswick Land. It is operated by the BZV Medienhaus GmbH, headquartered in Braunschweig. Local editions There are ...

'', 29 March 2004.

References

External links

The Darwin Correspondence Online DatabaseBHL
Digitised ''Die wirbelthiere Europa's''
WorldCat Identities
Publications by Blasius.

1809 births 1870 deaths Academic staff of TU Braunschweig 19th-century German zoologists {{ornithologist-stub