Murk van Phelsum (6 August 1732, probably

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of ...

- 21 August 1779, Sneek) was a Dutch

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, who was the namesake for the

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia al ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

Phelsuma ''Phelsuma'' is a large genus of geckos in the family Gekkonidae. Species in the genus ''Phelsuma'' are commonly referred to as day geckos. Some day geckos are seriously endangered and some are common, but all ''Phelsuma'' species are CITES Appe ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Phelsum", p. 206). Van Phelsum started his medical studies on 17 November 1754 at the university of

Franeker Franeker (; fry, Frjentsjer) is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Waadhoeke. It is located north of the Van Harinxmakanaal and about 20 km west of Leeuwarden. As of 1 January 2014, it had 12 ...

(Netherlands), where he later earned his doctorate. He settled down as a medical doctor first in

Bolsward Bolsward (, West Frisian: ''Boalsert'') is a city in Súdwest-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Bolsward has a population of just under 10,200. It is located 10 km W.N.W. of Sneek. History The town is founded on thr ...

and from 1764 in

Sneek Sneek (; fy, Snits) is a city southwest of Leeuwarden and the seat of the former municipality of Sneek in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. As of 2011 it is the seat of the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân (Southwest Friesland). T ...

. He wrote: *''Historia physiologica ascaridum'' (Leeuwarden, 1762) *''Explicatio patrium pythographiae L. Plukneti'' (Haarlem, 1769) *''Natuurkundige verhandeling over de wormen die veeltijds in de darmen der menschen gevonden worden.'' (Leeuwarden, 1767), translated into German by Joh. Weisse (Gotha 1780-92) *''Vertoog over de gemakkelijkste wijze om geknelde darmbreuken binnen te brengen.'' (Sneek 1772) *''Brief aan den heer C. Nozeman over de gewelfstekken of zeeëgelen, waarachter gevoegd zijn twee beschrijvingen, de eene van een zeker soort zeewier en de andere van maden in een vuile verzwering gevonden.'' (Rotterdam 1775) *''Twee brieven rakende de verhandeling van den heer Tissot over de vallende ziekte.'' (Amsterdam 1776) *''Verhandelingen over tot de genees- en natuurkunde behoorende onderwerpen.'' (Franeker 1776) His library was sold on 13 March 1780.

References

Further reading