Otto Friedrich Müller

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Otto Friedrich Müller
Müller painted by Erik Pauelsen, 1789.
Born(1730-11-02)2 November 1730
Copenhagen
Died26 December 1784(1784-12-26) (aged 54)

Otto Friedrich Müller, also known as Otto Friedrich Mueller (2 November 1730 – 26 December 1784) was a

scientific illustrator
.

Biography

Müller was born in Copenhagen. He was educated for the church, became tutor to a young nobleman, and after several years' travel with him, settled in Copenhagen in 1767, and married a lady of wealth.

His first important works, Fauna Insectorum Friedrichsdaliana (Leipzig, 1764), and Flora Friedrichsdaliana (Strasbourg, 1767), giving accounts of the insects and flora of the estate of Frederiksdal, near Copenhagen, recommended him to Frederick V of Denmark, by whom he was employed to continue the Flora Danica a comprehensive atlas of the flora of Denmark. Müller added two volumes to the three published by Georg Christian Oeder since 1761.

The study of invertebrates began to occupy his attention almost exclusively, and in 1771 he produced a work in German on “Certain Worms inhabiting Fresh and Salt Water,” which described many new species of those

nereides, and gave much additional information respecting their habits. He discovered the first diatom ever seen, the colonial diatom Bacillaria paradoxa, though he thought it was an animal because of its movement.[1]

In his Vermium Terrestrium et Fluviatilium, seu Animalium Infusoriorum, Helminthecorum, et Testaceorum non Marinorum, succincta Historia (2 vols. in 4to, Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1773–74), he arranged the

Baron Cuvier
, give the author “a place in the first rank of those naturalists who have enriched science with original observations.”

His Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus (1776) was the first survey of the fauna of the combined kingdoms of

Hydrachnellae and Entomostraca, all unknown to Linnaeus
.

He was a member of the

Académie des sciences, Paris, and the Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science
. He had a lasting impact on zoological studies across Europe.

Works

Title page of "Vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu, Animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia / auctore Othone Friderico Müller"
  • Fauna Insectorum Fridrichsdaliana. Lipsiae: Hafniae et Gleditsch xxiv 96 pp. (1764).
  • Vermium terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum, et testaecorum, non marinorum, succincta historia. Volumen alterum. pp. I-XXVI [= 1-36], 1–214, [1-10]. Havniæ [Copenhagen] et Lipsiæ [Leipzig]: Heineck and Faber, [1]. (1773-1774).
  • Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus, seu Animalium Daniae et Norvegiae Indigenarum characteres, nomina, et synonyma imprimis popularium.... Copenhagen, Hallager for the author, [2]. (1776).
    "... the first manual on this topic (Danish and Norwegian Zoology) and was for many years the most comprehensive. It was planned as the beginning of a large illustrated fauna, but only one volume appeared before Müller's death; the following volumes, including those prepared by
    Martin Heinrich Rathke, never reached the standard of the Flora Danica begun by Georg Christian Oeder"[2]
  • Animalcula infusoria fluviatilia et marina, quae detexit, systematice descripsit et ad vivum delineari curavit. Havniae [Copenhagen] et Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Mölleri, [3]. (1786).
  • Entomostraca seu Insecta Testacea, quae in aquis Daniae et Norvegiae reperit, descripsit et iconibus illustravit. 135 pp., [4]. (1785).
The standard author abbreviation O.F.Müll. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ussing, A.P. et al. The Colonial Diatom “Bacillaria paradoxa”: Chaotic Gliding Motility, Lindenmeyer Model of Colonial Morphogenesis, and Bibliography, with Translation of O.F. Müller (1783), “About a peculiar being in the beach-water” Ruggell, A.R.G. Ganter Verlag Kommanditgesellschaft. 5, 2005 (retrieved June 6, 2015)
  2. ^ Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 16 vols. New York. 1981.
  3. ^ International Plant Names Index.  O.F.Müll.

References

  • Spärck, R.(1932) “Otto Friedrich Müller” in: Meisen, V. Prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, pp. 60–64.
  • New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
    The American Cyclopædia
    .

External links

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