Johann Bachstrom

Johann Bachstrom

Jan Fryderyk or Johann Friedrich Bachstrom, (24 December, 1688, near Rawicz - June 1742, Niesviez) was a Silesian-born writer, scientist and Lutheran theologian who spent the last decade of his life in Leiden. His surname is sometimes spelt Bachstroem or Bachstrohm. He mostly wrote in Latin, German, and French (with his given names adjusted to "Joannis Friderici" and "Jean-Frédéric" as appropriate), while in English biographies he can appear as "John Frederic Bachstrom". Since he is best known for his publications while in Leiden, he is most often described as a Dutch physician and writer.

Early life

Bachstrom was born in 1688 the son of a barber in Silesia, then controlled by Austria. By 1708 he studied theology in Halle and upon his return in Silesia sought to become a preacher, but was refused based on doubts about his orthodoxy. In 1717 he became a professor at the gymnasium of Thorn. He was expelled from this city after a heterodox sermon had resulted in much disorder. He moved to Wengrow, then a centre for Reformation movements in Poland, where he combined the offices of physician and pastor. By 1729 he, somehow, was in Constantinople where he established a printing shop and undertook to translate the Bible into Turkish. This led to much consternation and he was once more compelled to flee a city. [ Hugh James Rose "A New General Biographical Dictionary", London, 1857. ]

Leiden and treatise on scurvy

He may have gone directly to Leiden, from where his studies appeared from the early 1730s. Many of his opinions appear common sense but ahead of his time. For example, he promoted that women should be allowed to become medical doctors and that sailors should be taught to swim before taking off to sea. Most famously, he urged the use of fresh fruit and vegetables to cure scurvy. In his 1734 book "Observationes circa scorbutum" ("Observations on Scurvy"), he wrote that:-:: "scurvy is solely owing to a total abstinence from fresh vegetable food, and greens; which is alone the primary cause of the disease."This publication preceded James Lind's celebrated experiment on scurvy by 13 years and Lind's publication "A treatise of the scurvy" by 19 years, and he has been called "the one light of the era who, more than any other writer for centuries before or decades after, truly understood scurvy as a deficiency disease." Stephen E. Bown, "Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail", Thomas Dunne Books, 2004, ISBN-13: 978-0312313913 ] Bachstrom's book probably was dismissed in its time as it did not fit in the then prevailing holistic views in medicine, which sought to explain all diseases by a single theory and to cure them by a universal cure.

Novelist

In 1736/37 he published, anonymously, a novel describing a utopian society established by shipwrecked religious dissidents (the "Inqviraner") near an unnamed North-African mountain range, in which complete religious freedom existed. The novel drew from his own experiences of his time in Constantinople and on French and British novels, like Montesquieu's Lettres persanes and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. [http://www.germanistik.ch/scripts/download.php?id=Hohe_Romane_und_blaue_Bibliotheken An article starting with a lament on the loss of his Inqviraner book from the literature] (in German) ]

At the urging of Jesuits, presumably for his liberal opinions on religion, he was imprisoned and died (by strangulation) in Nyasvizh in Lithuania (now in Belarus) in 1742.

Books

* "Observationes circa scorbutum : ejusque indolem, causas, signa, et curam, institutæ, eorum præprimis in usum, qui Groenlandiam & Indiam Orientis petunt." Leiden, Conrad Wishoff, 1734
* "Nova aestus marini theoria", Leiden, 1734
* "Bey zwei hundert Jahr lang unbekannte, nunmehro aber entdeckte vortreffliche Land der Inqviraner: : Aus der Erzehlung Eines nach langwieriger Kranckheit in unsern Gegenden verstorbenen Aeltesten dieses glückseligen Landes, Nach allen seinen Sitten, Gebräuchen, Ordnungen, Gottesdienst, Wissenschafften, Künsten, Vortheilen und Einrichtung umständlich beschrieben, Und dem gemeinen Wesen zum Besten mitgetheilet." Breslau (probably not Frankfurt, as usually quoted), 1736/37
* "L'Art de Nager, ou Invention à l'aide de laquelle on peut toujours se sauver du Naufrage; &, en cas de besoin, fair passer les plus larges Rivières à les Armées entières." Amsterdam, Zacharie Chatelain, 1741. Though called "The Art of Swimming" this book is about life-saving and mostly describes his invention of a life-jacket (made out of cork). [http://www.schulz-falster.com/fairs/fair22.pdf]

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Johann Friedrich Bachstrom — Jan Fryderyk oder Johann Friedrich Bachstrom, (* 24. Dezember 1686 bei Rawicz (deutsch: Rawitsch); † Juni 1742 in Njaswisch) war ein lutherischer Theologe, Mediziner, Techniker, Schriftsteller und Pädagoge. Sein letztes Lebensjahrzehnt verbrachte …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • University of Halle-Wittenberg — For the American university, see Wittenberg University. Martin Luther University of Halle Wittenberg Martin Luther Universität Halle Wittenberg Latin: Universitas …   Wikipedia

  • Universidad de Halle-Wittenberg — Para la Universidad americana, sita en Springfield (Ohio), Estados Unidos, véase Universidad de Wittenberg. Martin Luther University of Halle Wittenberg Universidad Martín Lutero de Halle Wittenberg …   Wikipedia Español

  • Scurvy — Classification and external resources Scorbutic gums, a symptom …   Wikipedia

  • Sick and Hurt Commissioners — The Sick and Hurt Commissioners (also known as the Sick and Hurt Board, but formally and fully titled The Commissioners for taking Care of Sick and Wounded Seamen and for the Care and Treatment of Prisoners of War) were responsible for medical… …   Wikipedia

  • Vitamin C — This article is about ascorbic acid as a nutrient; for its chemical properties, see the article ascorbic acid; for other uses, see the disambiguation page. Vitamin C …   Wikipedia

  • Leiden — Leyden redirects here. For other uses, see Leyden (disambiguation) .Infobox Settlement official name = Leiden image size = 250px image caption = The Old Rhine in Leiden flag size = 120x100px image shield = Arms Leiden.jpg shield size = 120x100px… …   Wikipedia

  • 1688 in literature — The year 1688 in literature involved some significant events.Events*John Locke has the first abstract of his seminal Essay concerning Human Understanding appear in Leclerc s Bibliotheque universelle *Fourth (and illustrated) edition of John… …   Wikipedia

  • Leiden — Bandera …   Wikipedia Español

  • Rettungsweste — Feststoff Rettungsweste, 100 N Auftrieb Eine Rettungsweste ist ein Kleidungsstück, das eine Person im Wasser selbstständig in die Rückenlage dreht und den Kopf über Wasser hält, um die Atemwege freizuhalten. Diese Eigenschaft gilt auch, wenn die… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”