Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus

Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus Latinized as Ludovicus Henricus Bojanus (16 July 1776 – 2 April 1827) was a Franco-German physician, comparative anatomist, and naturalist who spent most of his active career teaching veterinary medicine at Vilnius University in Vilnius, then under occupation by Tsarist Russia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His greatest work was a two-volume folio on the anatomy of the turtle Emys orbicularis published in 1819 and 1821. The Organ of Bojanus of molluscs is named after him. The Triassic mammal Lisowicia bojani was named in his honour in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Life and work

File:Bojanus Emys 1.jpg

An illustration of the anatomy of Emys engraved by Friedrich Lehmann based on drawings made by Bojanus

Bojanus was born at Bouxwiller in Alsace,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> to Johann Jakob Bojanus (1740–1820) and Marie Eleonore Magdalene Kromayer. His younger sister Louise Friederike (1789–1880) married into the influential Merck family of Darmstadt. The family of Lutherans fled along with to Darmstadt during the French invasion of Alsace in 1789.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> He finished his secondary education in Darmstadt and studied medicine at the University of Jena (Dr. med., 1797). In 1804 he was appointed professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Vilnius, a post which he could assume only in 1806.<ref name="DE">ADB:Bojanus, Ludwig Heinrich @ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1812 he fled to St Petersburg when Vilnius was invaded by Napoleon's army and returned only in 1814.<ref name=":0" /> He began to teach comparative anatomy from 1814. In 1822 he was appointed rector of the university. Two years later, on medical advice, he returned to Darmstadt, where he died on 2 April 1827, a year after the death of his wife who took care of his medical needs.<ref name="DE" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Anatome testudinis Europaeae (Tabula XX) BHL2969631.jpg

Anatomy of Emys

Bojanus produced 70 works on anatomy and veterinary medicine with the most influential work being an illustrated book on the anatomy of turtles, Anatome Testudinis Europaeae (1819, 1821). This had 50 plates, illustrated on his own, on the anatomy of the European pond turtle Emys orbicularis based on dissections of at least 500 turtles according to his student and biographer Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz (1802–1881). He initially considered dedicating the book to Georges Cuvier but decided not to later, possibly due to the troubles he had faced from the French and due to his allegiance to Tsarist Russia. He printed 80 copies at a cost of 5000 rubles (about two years of his wages worth) which he paid for on his own, leading to financial difficulties.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> His student Adamowicz later became a veterinary professor at Vilnius. Other significant students included Karol Muyschel (1799–1843) and Fortunat Jurewicz (1801–1826).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He made several discoveries, including a glandular organ in bivalve molluscs that is now known as the organ of Bojanus.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He noted cercaria inside snails in 1818 and considered them as related to liver flukes but did not know about the life cycle.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He described the auroch species (Bos primigenius) and the steppe wisent (Bison priscus) providing distinction between them.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Bojanus married Wilhelmine Roose (1777–1826) in Vienna in 1803 and had no children of his own but had a stepdaughter Amelie (1819–1893). In 1814 he was elected corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St.Petersburg;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in 1818 he became a member of the Imperial Leopold-Caroline Academy of Natural Sciences then in Bonn,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 1821 was a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

External links

• Anatome testudinis Europaeae (Scans of the two volumes)
• Template:Internet Archive author