Johann Gerhard König: Difference between revisions

König was born near ''Kreutzburg'' in [[Inflanty Voivodeship|Polish Livonia]], which is now [[Krustpils]] in [[Latvia]].<ref>Various sources give his birthplace as Ungernhof (a.k.a. Lemenen), a manor belonging to the estate of Kreutzburg/Krustpils. Krustpils, which is on the north bank of the [[Daugava River|Daugava]], is now part of the city of [[Jēkabpils]], which was then ''Jakobstadt'' in [[Courland]] on the south bank. Rao (1998) places his birth in "Lenaenen in Courland (Denmark)" - that, however, being clearly erroneous</ref> He was a private pupil of [[Carl Linnaeus]] in 1757, and lived in [[Denmark]] from 1759 to 1767 during which time he examined the plants of Iceland. In 1767 he joined as a medical officer to the [[Tranquebar Mission]] and on his voyage to India, he passed through Cape Town where he met Governor [[Ryk Tulbagh|Rijk Tulbagh]] with an introduction from Linnaeus, collecting plants in the Table Mountain region from 1 to 28 April 1768. König replaced the position made available following the death of Halle-educated physician [[Samuel Benjamin Cnoll]] (1705–67).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jensen|first=Niklas Thode|date=2005-10-01|title=The Medical Skills of the Malabar Doctors in Tranquebar, India, as Recorded by Surgeon T L F Folly, 1798|url= |journal=Medical History|language=en|volume=49|issue=4|pages=489–515|doi=10.1017/S0025727300009170|issn=0025-7273|pmc=1251641|pmid=16562332}}</ref> In 1774 he took up a better paying position as  [[natural history|naturalist]] for the [[Nawab of Arcot]], serving in that position until 1778.<ref>{{cite book | last=Rottbøll| first=Christen Friis | author-link= Christen Friis Rottbøll| year=1783 | title=Beskrivelse af nogle Planter fra de malabariske Kyster, Til Pisoniæ buxifoliæ Beskrivelse, som Side 537 endes, følger følgende Oplysning, som et nyelig med Skibet Tranquebar fra Ostindien af Hr. Dr. Kønig mig tilsendt Exemplar | language=Danish|trans-title=Description of some Plants from the Malabar Coasts ... | series= Proceedings of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters }}</ref><ref name="rao">Rao, B S Subba (1998) History of Entomology in India. Institution of Agricultural Technologists.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12795626|author=Hagen, H.A.|title=Bibliotheca entomologica. Die Litteratur über das ganze Gebiet der Entomologie, bis zum Jahre 1862. |volume=1|year=1862|page=428}}</ref> In 1773, he received the Doctor's degree ''[[graduation in absentia|in absentia]]'' from the [[University of Copenhagen]] possibly for his studies on indigenous remedies published as ''De remediorum indigenorum ad morbes cuivis regioni endemicos expuguandos efficacia''. He became naturalist to the Nawab of Arcot in 1774 and embarked on a trip to the mountains north of [[Madras]] and to [[Ceylon]], a description of which was later published in a Danish scientific journal. On 17 July 1778, König was appointed Naturalist at Madras with the [[British East India Company]] where he remained until his death, undertaking several scientific journeys and working with notable scientists like [[William Roxburgh]], [[Johan Christian Fabricius]] and Sir [[Joseph Banks]].  

{{botanist|J.Koenig|Koenig, Johann Gerhard}}