Hermann, John

, professor of botany and the materia medica at Strasburgh, was born Dec. 21, 1738, at Barr, near Strasbnrgh. His father, a protestant clergyman at that place, devoted his leisure hours to physical experiments, and imparted to his son a tasce for the study of natural history and the science of nature, who made at the same time an extraordinary progress in rhetoric, | philology, history, philosophy, mathematics, and hiedicine, In 1765, he took the degree of doctor of medicine, and made a -journey to Paris, where he enlarged his knowledge, enriched his cabinet of natural history, and acquired the friendship of the most eminent French literati. In the twenty-sixth year of his age he commenced at Strasburgh, lectures on natural history, which he continued until his death. In 1768 he was appointed professor extraordinary of medicine; ten years afterwards he obtained the chair of philosophy, and in 1782 that of pathology. At the death of professor Spielmann, in 1784, he was promoted to the professorship of botany, chemistry, and materia medica. On the reform of the system of literary education in France he was appointed professor of bot^in^ and the materia medica, at the medical academy established in Strasburgh in 1795, and professor of natural history at the central school. He was also admitted a fellow of the national institute of France, and successively chosen a member of the royal academy of sciences, of Berlin, of the Linnaean society, and of several other academies and literary societies. Among his numerous correspondents were Buffon, Cuvier, Fortis, Hany, Millin, La Peyrouse, Schreber, Zimmer*­mann, c, Hesacrificed all his property to form one of the finest and richest cabinets of natural history in Europe, and without having edited any large work on natural science, he has enriched it with many interesting discoveries and ingenious observations, published in his numerous dissertations, and in several literary journals, both Gerjnan and French. He died of a pulmouic disease, Oct. 4, 1800. ¹