Amman, Paul

, a learned German physician and botanist, was born at Breslaw in 1634. After studying in various German universities, he travelled to Holland and England, received his doctor’s degree at Leipsic, and was admitted a member of the society of natural history (l’academie de curieux de la nature) under the 1 name of Dryander. In 1674, an extraordinary professorship was established for him, from which he-was promoted to that of botany, and in 1682, to that of physiology. Amman was a man of a lively and somewhat turbulent cast, and although all his writings discover great learning and talents in his profession, yet he is often harsh in his remarks on others, fond of paradox, and affects a jocular humour not very well suited to the nature of the subjects on which he treats. His first work was a critical extract from the different decisions in the registers of the faculty of Leipsic, Erfurt, 1670, 4to; on which they thought proper to pass a public censure, in their answer published in the same year, under the title “Facultatis medicse Lipsiensis excusatio, &c.” His other productions were, 1. “Paraenesis ad docentes occupata circa institutionum medicarum emendationem,” Rudulstadt, 1673, 12mo, a vehement invective against medical systems, especially the Galenic, in which he certainly points out errors and abuses; but, as Haller observes, without pointing out any thing better. Leichner and others wrote against this work, whom he answered, in 2. “Archaeas syncopticus, Eccardi Leichneri, &c. oppositus,” 1674, 12mo. 3. “Irenicum Numae Pompilii cum Hippocrate, quo veterum medicorum et philosophorum hypotheses, &c. a prseconceptis opinionibus vindicantur,” Francfort, 1689, 8vo, a work of a satirical cast, and much in the spirit of the former. 4, “Praxis vulnerurn lethalium,” Francfort, 1690, 8vo. As a botanist, he published a description of the garden at Leipsic, and “Character naturalis plantarum,” 1676, a work which, entitles him to rank among those who have most ably contributed to the advancement of the science of botany as we now have it. Nebel published an improved edition of this work in 1700. Amman, whom, we may add, Haller | characterises as a man of a caustic turn, and somewhat conceited, died in 1691, in his fifty-fifth year. ¹