{"id":265,"date":"2011-02-11T09:13:41","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T08:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/?p=265"},"modified":"2015-10-12T23:41:14","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T21:41:14","slug":"eyebright-being-an-ichthyologist-in-the-18th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/2011\/02\/eyebright-being-an-ichthyologist-in-the-18th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyebright – being an ichthyologist in the 18th Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest issue of the annual proceedings of the Swedish Linnaean Society<\/a> (Svenska Linn\u00e9s\u00e4llskapets \u00c5rsskrift, 2010) has an interesting article by Gudrun Nyberg bearing the title \u00d6gontr\u00f6st En biografi \u00f6ver naturforskaren Bengt Andersson Euphras\u00e9n 1755-1796<\/em>. ( Eyebright A biography of the natural scientist Bengt Andersson Euphras\u00e9n 1775-1796.<\/em> ) Euphras\u00e9n is (and was) one of the lesser known Swedish ichthyologists (although I bet most readers will be at a loss to call to mind any number of Swedish ichthyologist at all …). He did not live to see anything significant\u00a0 ichthyological really accomplished, and his biography is verdict of that. Indeed he may be best known for his book about St. Barth\u00e9lemy, mainly on plants. That would take us to a different story, though.<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n was born apparently 26 April 1755, son to a farmer in Myrebo (could translate to “Antnest” as well as\u00a0 “Bognest”) in the western part of Sweden. Himself he seems to have lived in the illusion that he was born sometime\u00a0 in April 1756. He was baptized Bengt Andersson. Somehow he was given a good education, attending boarding school on Visings\u00f6 Island<\/a> from 1772 as Benedictus Ar\u00e9n Habo\u00ebnsis. For a while he attended a veterinary curriculum in Skara<\/a> with the taken name Euphras\u00e9n, from the plant Euphrasia stricta<\/em><\/a> (or some other species of Euphrasia<\/em>). This is the only case I know of where someone has borrowed a scientific name for last name. It is always the other way. Perhaps an easy way of getting oneself a patronym? He returned to and graduated from high school in 1780, immediately\u00a0 signing on as sailor on a ship to China. Already in school he had become addicted to Botany and now on the trip to and from China he observed and collected fish. Very few of them it seems, five were described as new. Euphras\u00e9n wasn’t going to litter ichthyological nominospace.<\/p>\n

Back home in 1783 he sold or handed over his catch to a wealthy merchant, Clas Alstr\u00f6mer<\/a> in Gothenburg, who had a natural history cabinet. From now on Alstr\u00f6mer and Euphras\u00e9n interacted in various ways. Alstr\u00f6mer employed Euphras\u00e9n to curate his collections and eventually, when his finances fell low, move them to G\u00e5sevadholm Castle<\/a> in Halland. In 1787 Alstr\u00f6mer obtained support from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for a trip to the Swedish West Indies, the island of St. Barth\u00e9lemy<\/a>, where Euphras\u00e9n made collections, mostly plants. Upon his return Euphras\u00e9n marrried to Maria Greta Hallberg and they had a son in 1793, but it seems Euphras\u00e9n\u00a0 left Gothenburg and his family for good in the spring of 1794, after the passing of Alstr\u00f6mer. He moved to Stockholm where he worked in the Academy as some kind of assistant to Anders Sparrman<\/a>. His manuscript about St. Barth\u00e9lemy was somehow turned down by the Academy in 1792 following Sparrman’s review, but eventually it came out with Academy support in 1795. Interesting about this St. Barts thing relates to the fish. He had bought two specimens of a strange kind of cod in the harbour of Gothenburg in 1787 but they deteriorated on the way to St. Barts and were discarded. Imagine: collects a new species in Sweden and takes the specimens along to St. Barts, just to lose them to putrefaction, … well, well. Upon return it took some time to find a new one, and only\u00a0 in 1793 one came into his hands. He described it as Gadus lubb<\/em>, and quite in vain as it is a synonym of Brosme brosme <\/em>(Ascanius, 1772)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Aetobatis<\/a>

Raja narinari<\/em> = Aetobatis narinari<\/em>, described from the Swedish West Indies. Drawing from Euphras\u00e9n, 1790, tail not shown.<\/p><\/div>\n

At some point Euphras\u00e9n got himself working on a manuscript about Bohusl\u00e4n’s fishes. As we all know, that’s all the Swedish marine fauna, and what is beyond that is not much, so at some later point he decided on and completed a Swedish Ichthyology, covering all Swedish fish species. In the late 1700s a national ichthyology was quite something innovative. The Academy, however, apparently refused to print it.\u00a0 The manuscript, describing 106 species of fishes, is preserved in the library of Lund University. Euphras\u00e9n died in December 1796, of hernia. Poor, misunderstood, in conflict with colleagues, writer of masterpieces. There is no portrait.<\/p>\n

There is of course a lot more to this biography, for which Gudrun Nyberg’s illustrated article better be consulted. Aside from calling attention to an earlier, relatively unnoticed colleague of mine (the Academy’s natural history collection became the Swedish Museum of Natural History where I work as a curator), I just wish to expose here some aspects of ichthyological concern.<\/p>\n

Plants from the St. Barth\u00e9lemy expedition were bought by Carl Peter Thunberg<\/a> for the Uppsala University (Wikstr\u00f6m 1825<\/a>), displaying 113 objects online<\/a>. Others are still in existence in the Botany department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History<\/a>. They have 106 online\u00a0 items with Euphras\u00e9n as collector. Unfortunately, the fishes seem to be gone altogether. The Swedish Museum of Natural History has specimens from one or more of the many Alstr\u00f6mer and the Academy, but nothing definitely from Euphras\u00e9n. Jonas Alstr\u00f6mer, father of Clas, was also a collector of natural history objects, and some part of his collection has found its way at least to the Museum of Evolution in Uppsala, but it still remains to be investigated what happened to the collections of Clas, and those of Euphras\u00e9n. The type of Gadus lubb<\/em> was deposited in the Swedish Museum of Natural History, but apparently is no longer present there.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, all of Euphras\u00e9n’s fish works are available online in one or another form. The St. Barth\u00e9lemy treatise is published online by the Biodiversity Heritage Library<\/a>. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences<\/a> are publishing their Transactions online, and they include the four fish papers by Euphras\u00e9n. Well, they are all in Swedish, an older form which is not covered by Google Translate, but at least you can admire the elegant woodcuts. Obviously not much was needed those days to get a fish description done. The mystery remains, however: How come Euphras\u00e9n, travelling to the two extremes of the world, Asia and America, with all the world’s unknown tropical fish fauna within reach, obviously didn’t make more discoveries? He even failed with two out of three Swedish species, Gadus lubb<\/em> (Bromse brosme <\/em>) and\u00a0 Gobius ruuthensparri<\/em> (=Gobiusculus flavescens<\/em>). Why wasn’t his Swedish Ichthyology published? What makes people become ichthyologists?<\/p>\n

The first publication, Trangrums-Acten<\/em> (” The fish oil sediment document”),\u00a0 from 1784 happens to be an environmental impact assessment study, maybe the first scientific of its kind in Sweden. At the time, herring was abundant and the production of fish oil boomed along the northern part of the Swedish West Coast. The oil was produced by fermentation and boiling in many hundreds of seaside factories. It was used for just about everything and it made Clas Alstr\u00f6mer and others rich. Regrettably, there was considerable waste of herring liberated from their oil. (The firs major oil sanitation operation in the world?) Waste products were dumped in the sea next to each factory, apparently producing local deoxygenation in addition to enrichening the air with the smell of millions and millions of rotten herring. The Stockholm based central government introduced a number of restrictions to reduce expected habitat detoriation (and curtail the increased wealth and political influence of the west coast companies?). That upset the oil companies, who responded with arguments in Trangrums-Acten<\/em>. It resulted in the compromise solution to construct shorenear ponds to contain the smelly offal. Clas Alstr\u00f6mer was active in the investigations, but most of the work seems to have resulted from the coordination by Johan Lorenz Rutensparre<\/a> (1752-1828), actually a naval military, but one of Sweden’s first environmental economists in his spare time.\u00a0 At a field excursion in 1783, Euphras\u00e9n obviously found specimens of a new species, of which\u00a0 Gobius ruuthensparri<\/em> was described first in Trangrums-Acten, <\/em>, but without name.<\/p>\n

Bengt Andersson Euphras\u00e9n’s bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note on online content:\u00a0 Most of he Academy Transaction papers are provided by the Royal Academy of Sciences Center for the History of Science<\/a>. The German translations of Academy Transactions are provided by the University of G\u00f6ttingen only up to 1788.<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n published as Bengt And. Euphras\u00e9n; where And. is short for Andersson, his original last name, but it is usually believed to be a first name (Anders). Indeed, in the 1786 paper his name is printed Bengt Anders Euphras\u00e9n, but that could be an editorial or printer’s decision. At the time children would automatically have the last name formed from the first name of their father (Euphras\u00e9n’s father was named Anders), but to this could be added something more distinctive, so that a double last name was common, as in today’s Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Not to complicate matters further, he is cited as Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. below, as people usually do. [It should be Andersson Euphras\u00e9n, B.]<\/p>\n

Ruuthensparre, J.L., J. Kiermanski\u00f6ld & A. Dahl. 1784. <\/strong>Utdrag af den Dagbok, som h\u00f6lts under en Unders\u00f6knings F\u00f6rr\u00e4ttning i Bohus L\u00e4nska Sk\u00e4rg\u00e5rden \u00e5ren 1783 och 1784. Pp. 18-65 In Anonymous.\u00a0 Trangrums-acten<\/a>, eller Samling af de handlingar, som med kongl. maj:ts allern\u00e5digste tilst\u00e5nd blifwit des och rikets h\u00f6glofl. amiralitets- och commerce-collegier tils\u00e4nde, r\u00f6rande tran-beredning af sill, uti Bohus l\u00e4nska sk\u00e4rg\u00e5rden, : och bewis derp\u00e5, at det uti hafswattnet utkastade trangrums skadar hwarken hamnar, farleder eller fiske, hwilket man tilf\u00f6rene befarat. I anseende til \u00e4mnets wigt, alm\u00e4n uplysning och beqw\u00e4mare bruk, til tryck befordrad af n\u00e5gra g\u00f6theborgare, : som anlagt transiuderier uti Bohus l\u00e4nska sk\u00e4rg\u00e5rden. Stockholm, tryckt i kongl. tryckeriet. [Apparently the fish identifications and notes are by Euphras\u00e9n, but he is not mentioned.\u00a0 A new species of Gobius<\/em> is mentioned on p. 52, but it it is named only in the 1786 paper, as Gobius ruuthensparri<\/em> .]<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1786. <\/strong>Beskrifning p\u00e5 tvenne Svenska Fiskar. Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar, 7: 64-6<\/a>7.
\nGobius Ruuthensparri<\/em> = Gobiusculus flavescens<\/em> (Fabricius 1779)
\nCottus Bubalis<\/em> = Taurulus bubalis<\/em> (Euphras\u00e9n, 1786)<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1788. <\/strong>Beskrifning p\u00e5 3:e fiskar. Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar, 9: 51-55<\/a>.
\nTrichiurus Caudatus<\/em> = Lepidopus caudatus<\/em> (Euphras\u00e9n, 1788)
\nStromateus argenteus<\/em> = Pampus argenteus<\/em> (Euphras\u00e9n, 1788)
\nStromateus Chinensis<\/em> = Pampus chinensis<\/em> (Euphras\u00e9n, 1788)<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1790.<\/strong> Raja (Narinari)<\/em>. Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar, 11:217-219<\/a>.
\nRaja Narinari<\/em> = Aetobatus narinari <\/em>(Euphras\u00e9n, 1790)<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1791.<\/strong> Scomber (Atun)<\/em> och Echeneis (Tropica)<\/em>. Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar, 12:315-318<\/a>.
\nScomber Atun<\/em> = Thyrsites atun<\/em> (Euphras\u00e9n, 1791)
\nEcheneis tropica<\/em> = Phtheirichthys lineatus<\/em> (Menzies, 1791)<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1794.<\/strong> Gadus Lubb<\/em>, en ny Svensk fisk beskrifven. Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar, 15: 223-227<\/a>.
\nGadus Lubb<\/em> = Brosme brosme<\/em> (Ascanius, 1772).<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1795.<\/strong> Beskrifning \u00f6fver svenska westindiska \u00f6n St. Barthelemi, samt \u00f6arne St. Eustache och St. Christopher. Anders Zetterberg, Stockholm, vi + 207 pp.
\nPerca Holocentrus<\/em> = Holocentrus adscensionis<\/em> (Osbeck 1765)<\/p>\n

German translations:<\/span><\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A.\u00a0 1787. <\/strong>Beschreibung von zwey schwedischen Fischen. Der K\u00f6niglich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften neue Abhandlungen aus der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst und Mechanik. N. S., 7: 62-65.<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A.\u00a0 1788.<\/strong> Beschreibung dreyer Fische. Der K\u00f6niglich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften neue Abhandlungen aus der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst und Mechanik. N. S., 9: 47-51.<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B. A.\u00a0\u00a0 1792. <\/strong>Raja narinari<\/em>. Der K\u00f6niglich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften neue Abhandlungen aus der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst und Mechanik. Der K\u00f6niglich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften neue Abhandlungen aus der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst und Mechanik. N. S., 11: 205-207.<\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1798. <\/strong>Herrn Bengt And. Euphrase\u0301ns Reise nach der schwedisch-westindischen Insel St. Barthelemi, und den Inseln St. Eustache und St. Christoph; oder Beschreibung der Sitten, Lebensart der Einwohner, Lage, Beshaffenheit und nat\u00fcrlichen Produkte dieser Inseln.\u00a0 Aus dem Schwedischen von Joh. Georg Lud. Blumhof<\/a>. G\u00f6ttingen.<\/p>\n

Non-fish:<\/span><\/p>\n

Euphras\u00e9n, B.A. 1793. <\/strong>Historiskt fr\u00f6gde-qw\u00e4de, wid jubel-dagens firande d. 8 martii 1793; af B.A. Euphras\u00e9n. G\u00f6theborg, tryckt hos Lars Wahlstr\u00f6m, 16 pp.<\/p>\n

Linn\u00e9, C. 1792. <\/strong>Archiatern och riddaren Carl von Linnees Termini botanici eller Botaniska ord, samlade och med anm\u00e4rkningar p\u00e5 swenska \u00f6fwersatta af Bengt And. Euphras\u00e9n<\/a>. G\u00f6theborg, tryckt hos Lars Wahlstr\u00f6m, 76 pp.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biographic data were condensed mostly from:<\/p>\n

Nyberg, G. 2011. \u00d6gontr\u00f6st En biografi \u00f6ver naturforskaren Bengt Andersson Euphras\u00e9n 1755-1796. Svenska Linn\u00e9s\u00e4llskapets \u00c5rsskrift, 2010: 69-89.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Erik \u00c5hlander<\/a> for information about possible Euphras\u00e9n collections in the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Bodil Kajrup, and the University Library in Gothenburg<\/a> for assistance with publications. Synonymies were checked against the Catalog of Fishes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest issue of the annual proceedings of the Swedish Linnaean Society (Svenska Linn\u00e9s\u00e4llskapets \u00c5rsskrift, 2010) has an interesting article by Gudrun Nyberg bearing the title \u00d6gontr\u00f6st En biografi \u00f6ver naturforskaren Bengt Andersson Euphras\u00e9n 1755-1796. ( Eyebright A biography of the natural scientist Bengt Andersson Euphras\u00e9n 1775-1796. ) Euphras\u00e9n is (and was) one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[116,141,115,132,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biographies","category-books-2","category-fish","category-ichthyology-2","category-taxonomy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2L6Sc-4h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.svenkullander.se\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}