Professor from January 22, 1731 to January 1, 1748, full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Naturalist of the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743).
German naturalist in Russian service, doctor, botanist, ethnographer, traveler, explorer of Siberia and the Urals, adjunct of chemistry and natural history of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (August 30, 1727), professor from January 22, 1731 to January 1, 1748, full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Naturalist of the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743).
Based on the results of research in Siberia, the books “Flora of Siberia” (1747-1769) were published in 4 volumes in Russian, which describe 1178 species of plants growing in Siberia, and “Travel through Siberia” in 4 volumes in German.
Academician and honorary member of the Stockholm Academy of Sciences.
Uncle of Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin (Gmelin the Younger), traveler-naturalist, and Johann Friedrich Gmelin, professor of medicine in Tübingen and Göttingen.
In botanical nomenclature, the scientific names of plants described by Gmelin are marked with the abbreviation “J.G.Gmel.”
Biography
Johann Georg Gmelin - the son of a pharmacist, was born in southwest Germany. Having received a home education, at the age of 13 he became a student at the University of Tübingen. In 1725, 16-year-old Johann graduated Faculty of Medicine with a Doctor of Medicine degree.
On the advice of his father, a university professor, and a family friend, scientist G. Bülfinger, Johann Gmelin moved to Russia in the summer of 1727. With a letter of recommendation and a collection of natural fossils, which were transferred to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he first studied natural history.
In August 1727, he interned at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. While the question of his approval as a professor was being decided, he received 10 rubles a month for expenses.
This year was significant for the St. Petersburg Academy. Two months before Gmelin, nineteen-year-old Leonard Euler arrived in St. Petersburg on the recommendation of Daniil Bernoulli, who was himself 25 years old. In the same year, a dropout student, Gerard-Friedrich Miller, arrived at the Academy and turned 22 years old. Subsequently, he will become Gmelin’s senior comrade on a difficult journey through Siberia. Even before Gmelin’s arrival, at the suggestion of the President of the Academy L. Blumentrost, Euler, Gmelin, Kraft, and Miller were recommended for professorships. The case is unprecedented for science of all times. The eldest - Kraft - was 26 years old.
I. G. Gmelin devoted the first three years of his life in Russia to work in the Kunstkamera and the cabinet of natural history. He compiled a catalog of minerals. He began compiling a catalog of ancient fossils together with academician Johann Aman. (But he did not finish this work, and it was completed in 1741 by M.V. Lomonosov).
Approved as an adjunct in chemistry and natural history (30.08.1727).
Helped in publishing the works of professor of botany I. H. Buxbaum.
Full member of the St. Petersburg Academy with the rank of professor of chemistry and natural history (01/22/1731).
Exploring Siberia
In 1724, Peter I equipped an expedition led by Vitus Bering to study the northern part of Pacific Ocean and adjacent lands. This expedition, known as the First Kamchatka expedition(1725-1729), left after the death of Emperor Peter. One of its tasks was to study the isthmus between America and Asia (the discovery of Semyon Dezhnev became known later). However, the expedition did not fully fulfill its objectives.
In connection with this, the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) was organized in 1733, also under the leadership of V. Bering. The number of participants reached 2000 people: naval officers, scientists, artists, translators, administrative and technical workers. Among the naturalists who participated in the expedition were I. G. Gmelin, G. V. Steller, S. P. Krasheninnikov. The forces of various detachments compiled the first maps and descriptions of the Russian coast from Arkhangelsk to Kolyma, the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka; the nature, peoples and history of Siberia are described. Voyages were made to the shores of Japan and Northwestern America, and the Kuril and Aleutian Islands were examined along the way.
I. G. Gmelin chose a route through Yaroslavl, Kazan, Tobolsk, Semipalatinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk and Irkutsk to Yakutsk, from where he returned to St. Petersburg through Irkutsk, Tomsk, Verkhoturye, Veliky Ustyug, Vologda and Shlisselburg.
He explored the northwestern part of Altai, the Salair Ridge, from Kuznetsk he went down the Tom River to Tomsk, walked along the Chulyma valley to the Yenisei, went up the river to Krasnoyarsk, from there he arrived in Irkutsk. Studied Transbaikalia from Selenga to Shilka and Arguni. Then he drove along the Angara to the Bratsk fort, passed through Ilimsk to Ust-Kut on the Lena and, turning south, reached the mouth of the Ilga, then arrived on a river boat in Yakutsk. Here the fire destroyed most of the materials he collected. To restore what was lost and additional research I walked along Vitim to Mama. For the first time he explored the North Baikal Plateau. Moving along the Lena, he described its banks as far as Olekma, and spoke about the coastal cliffs - “cheeks”. In 1736-1737 he discovered a number of mineral deposits in the Yakut region. IN next year went down by boat along the Angara and Yenisei to Turukhansk, described the northern spurs of the Yenisei Ridge. Traveled around the south for several years Western Siberia and the eastern slope of the Urals, described the Magnitnaya Mountain deposit. In 1741-1742 he studied the Barabinsk steppe and the eastern slopes of the Urals.
An encyclopedist scientist and a magnificent artist, in 10 years he traveled about 34,000 km across Siberia, laying the foundation for it scientific research.
Petersburg period of life (1743-1747)
Returning to St. Petersburg, he began processing the imported collections and diaries.
Botanical collections served as the basis for his multi-volume work “Flora of Siberia,” published in 8° during 1747-1759, which contained a description of almost 1178 species of Siberian plants, including 500 new species of flora, almost completely unknown in Europe before Gmelin’s travels, and 300 of their images. The first two volumes were edited by Gmelin himself, the third and fourth volumes were published under the editorship of S. G. Gmelin Jr., the author’s nephew, the fifth volume (spore plants) remained in manuscript.
Gmelin was one of the first to justify the division of Siberia into two natural-historical provinces: Western and Eastern Siberia, making extensive use of the botanical and zoological collections of the expedition.
After the completed first volume was presented to the Academy of Sciences, Gmelin asked at an academic meeting for permission to go to Germany for a period of one year, with the condition that during this time he would receive a salary and do work. He received such permission on June 1, 1747.
In 1747 Gmelin left for Tübingen, where from 1749 until his death in 1755 he was a professor of botany and chemistry at the local university.
From 1751 to 1755 in Göttingen he published his expedition diaries under the title “Travel through Siberia from 1741 to 1743.” in 4 volumes.
After his death, the scientist’s manuscripts and herbarium were taken to St. Petersburg and sold to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Since the first two volumes of “Flora of Siberia” were published before the systematic reform in botany of Carl Linnaeus, and in the rest Gmelin the Younger did not bring Gmelin’s botanical materials into conformity with Linnaeus’ taxonomy, most of the plant species new to Siberia described by Gmelin did not retain the authorship of I.G. Gmelin.
1744 - 1774
Gmelin Samuel Gottlieb - an outstanding traveler-naturalist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, famous in Russian literature as Gmelin Jr. (nephew of I.G. Gmelin), born on June 23, 1745 in Tübingen in the family of a pharmacist.
The remarkable abilities and diligence that distinguished S.G. Gmelin, appeared already at school. At the University of Tübingen he was not only the youngest, but also the most gifted student. In 1764, at the age of 19, Gmelin defended his dissertation “On certain well-known health-restoring remedies - cinnamon, Anisum stellatum and Assa foetida” before the academic council of the University of Tübingen and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Soon after this, Gmelin went on a trip to Europe.
Gmelin's observations of the biology of seaweeds and the collections he collected subsequently formed the basis of his botanical work Historia fucorum. Published in St. Petersburg in 1768, this book was the first Russian summary of algology and contained descriptions of about 20 species of algae northern seas Russia.
From Holland Gmelin went to Belgium, then to France. In Brussels and Paris, he studied herbaria and the works of famous botanists. In 1765, Gmelin returned to Tübingen, and in 1766 he received an invitation from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences to become its ordinary academician and professor of botany. In 1767, Gmelin arrived in St. Petersburg and soon led the 3rd Astrakhan expedition of the Academy of Sciences.
His detachment included pharmacist I.D. Lute, students Yakov Klyucharyov, Stepan Krasheninnikov, Ivan Mikhailov and Sergey Maslov, artist Ivan Borisov, scarecrow Mikhail Kotov. A large team of soldiers was assigned to protect the detachment.
The expedition set off in carriages from St. Petersburg on June 26, 1768.
The detachment spent the winter in Voronezh. Here Gmelin and Academy adjunct I.A. Gildenstedt, who led the 4th Astrakhan expedition, discussed the results of their observations and agreed on further routes.
Until this time, Gmelin basically followed the route that was prescribed to him in St. Petersburg by the Academy of Sciences. However, having met Gildenstedt again in Astrakhan, he came to the conclusion that the travel plan needed to be changed. The fact is that the results of the expeditions of Gmelin and Gildenstedt turned out to be very similar.
“...There was not the slightest difference in them, and how could one hope for that when we always traveled to countries that were similar to each other and were not far from each other? And since the difference in observations is the main intention of travel and through it science is especially disseminated, then we did not think about anything else except that, having left Russian borders beyond the Terek, one to follow to Georgia, and the other to Persia... All that remained for us was to take care of our safety.”
Gmelin drew up a plan for his subsequent expedition.
“Professor Gmelin intends to board a ship at the beginning of May, on which he will travel around the Caspian Sea in six months and examine the adjacent Russia and Persia solid ground. He hopes to spend the month of May between Astrakhan and the mouth of the Terek, June - between the mouth of the Terek and Derbent, July - between Derbent and Bakoy, August - between Bakoy and Ryashcha, and September - between Ryashcha and Astrabad. Having reached this last place near the Caspian Sea, in October he will come back to the Terek River and there will henceforth agree in detail on the journey with Mr. Gildenstedt.”
This plan was approved by the Academy of Sciences.
Astrakhan Governor A.N. Beketov, who received a personal decree from St. Petersburg obliging him to ensure the safety of the expedition, provided Gmelin with letters of recommendation to the khans of the states that the traveler intended to visit, gave him translators who knew Persian and Tatar languages, and a team of 12 soldiers led by a sergeant, a flutist and a drummer.
“To the fair praise of this gentleman,” wrote Gmelin, “I must say that he did not miss anything, that he was destined to be useful for a happy journey.”
In June 1770, Gmelin's expedition set off from Astrakhan along the Caspian Sea to Baku, from there to Shemakha, Salyan, then again by sea to Enzeli, then to Rasht. Gmelin was going to visit Isfahan, Tabriz, Mount Ararat, but he was unable to find guides and accompaniments who would decide on this trip, which involved great risk. Therefore, Gmelin went along south coast Caspian Sea to the lands of Mezenderan to Balfrush and Astrabad. But even in this province it was so turbulent that he could not reach Astrabad and was forced to return to Balfrush-Anzeli, and from there and back by sea to Astrakhan.
Academician S.G. Gmelin studied methods for constructing oil wells in Baku, and for the first time expressed the idea of the possibility of drilling for gas and using it as fuel. Describing the wells, he notes that the depth of oil wells in Balakhany at that time reached 40-50 m, and the diameter or side of the square section of the well was 0.7-1.0 m.
He also gives information on national composition and about the religious affiliation of city residents, noting that the bulk of the population of Baku are “Persians”, “Tatars” and Armenians; the main religion of the city residents was Muslim.
Gmelin's expedition was associated exclusively with great difficulties: travelers suffered from heat, severe fevers, and experienced many hardships. In addition, the path ran through lands that belonged to autocratic eastern rulers, and often the fate of the expedition and even the lives of its participants depended on their arbitrariness.
In June 1772 he again went by sea to Persia, accompanied by several assistants and a military team of 40 people. Having examined the eastern coast of the sea to Enzeli, Gmelin intended to go by land to Kizlyar.
However, having left Derbent, he was robbed and detained by Khaytyk Khan Usmey, in the hope of receiving a ransom for him.
From all kinds of hardships, Gmelin fell ill and at the age of 30 died on July 27, 1774 in Akhmetkent, where he was imprisoned.
In 1861, Academician Dorn visited the site of Gmelin’s death and erected a tombstone at the supposed place of his burial, which was then restored in 1903. Monument in the form quadrangular pyramid, made of stone slabs, topped with a cross. The inscription “In memory of S.G.” is carved on the grave. Gmelin, who died on June 27, 1774."
Works by S. Gmelin:
- Samuel Georg Gmelin, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Imperial Academy Sciences, London, Harlem and Free St. Petersburg economic society Member Travel to Russia for Research three kingdoms nature. Reise durch Russlaud zur Untersuchung der drei Naturreiche.SPb., 4 parts, 1770-1784, with drawings, drawings of animals and plants, types and other things.
Part I contains a description of the journey from St. Petersburg to Cherkassk;
part II - from Cherkassk to Astrakhan, with detailed description the cities of Astrakhan, Volga, fishing and other things;
part III - description of northern Persia (with modern Transcaucasia);
in part IV, published in 1784 in the adaptation of Pallas, there is a diary last trip Gmelin and his short biography compiled by Pallas.
- Historia fucorum. Petersburg, 1768
The correspondence of S. Gmelin and those accompanying him with details of his time in captivity can be read on the website Eastern literature -
Johann Georg Gmelin - German naturalist in Russian service, doctor, botanist, ethnographer, traveler, explorer of Siberia and the Urals, adjunct of chemistry and natural history of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (August 30, 1727), professor from January 22, 1731 to January 1, 1748, full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Naturalist of the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743).
Based on the results of research in Siberia, the books “Flora of Siberia” (1747-1769) were published in 4 volumes in Russian, which describe 1,178 species of plants growing in Siberia, and “Travel through Siberia” in 4 volumes in German.
Academician and honorary member Stockholm Academy of Sciences.
Uncle of Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin (Gmelin the Younger), traveler-naturalist, and Johann Friedrich Gmelin, professor of medicine in Tübingen and Göttingen.
Biography
Johann Georg Gmelin - the son of a pharmacist, was born in southwest Germany. Having received home education, at the age of 13 he became a student at the University of Tübingen. In 1725, 16-year-old Johann graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
On the advice of his father, a university professor, and a family friend, scientist G. Bülfinger, Johann Gmelin moved to Russia in the summer of 1727. With a letter of recommendation and a collection of natural fossils, which were transferred to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he first studied natural history.
In August 1727, he interned at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. While the question of his approval as a professor was being decided, he received 10 rubles a month for expenses.
This year was significant for the St. Petersburg Academy. Two months before Gmelin, nineteen-year-old Leonard Euler arrived in St. Petersburg on the recommendation of Daniil Bernoulli, who was himself 25 years old. In the same year, Gerard Friedrich Miller, a half-educated student who turned 22, arrived at the Academy. Subsequently, he will become Gmelin’s senior comrade on a difficult journey through Siberia. Even before Gmelin’s arrival, at the suggestion of the President of the Academy, Lavrentiy Blumentrost, Euler, Gmelin, Kraft, and Miller were recommended for professorships. The case is unprecedented for science of all times. The eldest - Kraft - was 26 years old.
I. G. Gmelin devoted the first three years of his life in Russia to work in the Kunstkamera and the cabinet of natural history. He compiled a catalog of minerals, began compiling a catalog of ancient fossils together with academician Johann Ammann (but he did not finish this work, and it was completed in 1741 by M.V. Lomonosov).
On August 30, 1727, Gmelin was confirmed as an adjunct in chemistry and natural history.
Helped in publishing the works of professor of botany I. H. Buxbaum.
Exploring Siberia
In 1724, Peter I equipped an expedition led by Vitus Bering to explore the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and the adjacent lands. This expedition, known as the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1729), left after the death of Emperor Peter. One of its tasks was to study the isthmus between America and Asia (the discovery of Semyon Dezhnev became known later). However, the expedition did not fully fulfill its objectives.
In connection with this, the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) was organized in 1733, also under the leadership of V. Bering. The number of participants reached 2,000 people: naval officers, scientists, artists, translators, administrative and technical workers. Among the naturalists who participated in the expedition were I. G. Gmelin, G. V. Steller, S. P. Krasheninnikov. The forces of various detachments compiled the first maps and descriptions of the Russian coast from Arkhangelsk to Kolyma, the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka; the nature, peoples and history of Siberia are described. Voyages were made to the shores of Japan and Northwestern America, and the Kuril and Aleutian Islands were examined along the way.
I. G. Gmelin chose a route through Yaroslavl, Kazan, Tobolsk, Semipalatinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk and Irkutsk to Yakutsk, from where he returned to St. Petersburg through Irkutsk, Tomsk, Verkhoturye, Veliky Ustyug, Vologda and Shlisselburg.
He explored the northwestern part of Altai, the Salair Ridge, from Kuznetsk he went down the Tom River to Tomsk, walked along the Chulyma valley to the Yenisei, went up the river to Krasnoyarsk, from there he arrived in Irkutsk. Studied Transbaikalia from Selenga to Shilka and Arguni. Then he drove along the Angara to the Bratsk fort, passed through Ilimsk to Ust-Kut on the Lena and, turning south, reached the mouth of the Ilga, then arrived on a river boat in Yakutsk. Here a fire destroyed most of the materials he collected. To restore what was lost and conduct additional research, I walked along Vitim to Mama. For the first time he explored the North Baikal Plateau. Moving along the Lena, he described its banks as far as Olekma, and spoke about the coastal cliffs - “cheeks”. In 1736-1737 he discovered a number of mineral deposits in the Yakut region. The following year, he went down the Angara and Yenisei boats to Turukhansk and described the northern spurs of the Yenisei Ridge. For several years he traveled through the south of Western Siberia and the eastern slope of the Urals, described the Magnitnaya Mountain deposit. In 1741-1742 he studied the Barabinsk steppe and the eastern slopes of the Urals.
An encyclopedist scientist and a magnificent artist, he traveled about 34,000 km across Siberia in 10 years, laying the foundation for its scientific research.
Petersburg period of life (1743-1747)
Returning to St. Petersburg, he began processing the imported collections and diaries.
Botanical collections served as the basis for his multi-volume work “Flora of Siberia,” published in 8° during 1747-1759, which contained a description of almost 1,178 species of Siberian plants, including 500 new species of flora, almost completely unknown in Europe before Gmelin’s travels, and 300 of their images . The first two volumes were edited by Gmelin himself, the third and fourth volumes were published under the editorship of S. G. Gmelin Jr., the author’s nephew, the fifth volume (spore plants) remained in manuscript.
Gmelin was one of the first to justify the division of Siberia into two natural-historical provinces: Western and Eastern Siberia, making extensive use of the botanical and zoological collections of the expedition for this purpose.
After the completed first volume was presented to the Academy of Sciences, Gmelin asked at an academic meeting for permission to go to Germany for a period of one year, with the condition that during this time he would receive a salary and do work. He received such permission on June 1, 1747.
In 1747, Gmelin went to Tübingen, where from 1749 until his death in 1755 he was a professor of botany and chemistry at the local university.
From 1751 to 1755 in Göttingen, he published his expedition diaries under the title “Travel through Siberia from 1741 to 1743” in 4 volumes.
After his death, the scientist’s manuscripts and herbarium were taken to St. Petersburg and sold to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Since the first two volumes of “Flora of Siberia” were published before the systematic reform in botany of Carl Linnaeus, and in the rest Gmelin the Younger did not bring Gmelin’s botanical materials into conformity with Linnaeus’ taxonomy, most of the plant species new to Siberia described by Gmelin did not retain the authorship of I.G. Gmelin.
Plants named after I. G. Gmelin
In honor of I. G. Gmelin, Carl Linnaeus named the Gmelina genus (Gmelina L.) (Verbenovaceae family) and about 60 plant species.
Gmelin larch (Larix gmelinii (RUPR.) RUPR.)
Based on the results of his research in Siberia, in 1747-1759, 4 volumes of the book “Flora of Siberia” were published, where descriptions of 1178 species of plants growing in Siberia were given. In 1751-1752, “Journey through Siberia” was published in four volumes in German.
Academician and honorary member of the Stockholm Academy of Sciences.
Uncle of Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin (Gmelin the Younger), traveler-naturalist, and Johann Friedrich Gmelin, professor of medicine in Tübingen and Göttingen.
Biography
Johann Georg Gmelin is the son of a mute pharmacist. , born in southwest Germany. Having received home education, at the age of 13 he became a student at the University of Tübingen. In 1725, 16-year-old Johann graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
On the advice of his father, a university professor, and a family friend, scientist G. Bülfinger, Johann Gmelin moved to Russia in the summer of 1727. With a letter of recommendation and a collection of natural fossils, which were transferred to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he first studied natural history.
In August 1727, he interned at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. While the question of his approval as a professor was being decided, he received 10 rubles a month for expenses.
This year was significant for the St. Petersburg Academy. Two months before Gmelin, nineteen-year-old Leonard Euler arrived in St. Petersburg on the recommendation of Daniil Bernoulli, who was himself 25 years old. In the same year, Gerard Friedrich Miller, a half-educated student who turned 22, arrived at the Academy. Subsequently, he will become Gmelin’s senior comrade on a difficult journey through Siberia. Even before Gmelin’s arrival, at the suggestion of the President of the Academy, Lavrentiy Blumentrost, Euler, Gmelin, Kraft, and Miller were recommended for professorships. The case is unprecedented for science of all times. The eldest - Kraft - was 26 years old.
I. G. Gmelin devoted the first three years of his life in Russia to work in the Kunstkamera and the cabinet of natural history. He compiled a catalog of minerals, began compiling a catalog of ancient fossils together with academician Johann Ammann (but he did not finish this work, and it was completed in 1741 by M.V. Lomonosov).
On August 30, 1727, Gmelin was confirmed as an adjunct in chemistry and natural history.
Helped in publishing the works of professor of botany I. H. Buxbaum.
Exploring Siberia
In 1724, Peter I equipped an expedition led by Vitus Bering to explore the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and the adjacent lands. This expedition, known as the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1729), left after the death of Emperor Peter. One of its tasks was to study the isthmus between America and Asia (the discovery of Semyon Dezhnev became known later). However, the expedition did not fully fulfill its objectives.
In connection with this, the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) was organized in 1733, also under the leadership of V. Bering. The number of participants reached 2,000 people: naval officers, scientists, artists, translators, administrative and technical workers. Among the naturalists who participated in the expedition were I. G. Gmelin, G. V. Steller, S. P. Krasheninnikov. The forces of various detachments compiled the first maps and descriptions of the Russian coast from Arkhangelsk to Kolyma, the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka; the nature, peoples and history of Siberia are described. Voyages were made to the shores of Japan and Northwestern America, and the Kuril and Aleutian Islands were examined along the way.
I. G. Gmelin chose the route through Yaroslavl, Kazan, Tobolsk, Semipalatinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk and Irkutsk to Yakutsk, from where he returned to St. Petersburg through Irkutsk, Tomsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Verkhoturye, Solikamsk, Veliky Ustyug, Vologda and Shlisselburg.
He explored the northwestern part of Altai, the Salair Ridge, from Kuznetsk he went down the Tom River to Tomsk, walked along the Chulym valley to the Yenisei, went up the river to Krasnoyarsk, from there he arrived in Irkutsk. Studied Transbaikalia from Selenga to Shilka and Arguni. Then he drove along the Angara to the Bratsk fort, passed through Ilimsk to Ust-Kut on the Lena and, turning south, reached the mouth of the Ilga, then arrived on a river boat in Yakutsk. Here a fire destroyed most of the materials he collected. To restore what was lost and conduct additional research, I walked along Vitim to Mama. For the first time he explored the North Baikal Plateau. Moving along the Lena, he described its banks as far as Olekma, and spoke about the coastal cliffs - “cheeks”. In 1736-1737 he discovered a number of mineral deposits in the Yakut region. The following year, he went down the Angara and Yenisei boats to Turukhansk and described the northern spurs of the Yenisei Ridge. For several years he traveled through the south of Western Siberia and the eastern slope of the Urals, described the Magnitnaya Mountain deposit. In 1741-1742 he studied the Barabinsk steppe and the eastern slopes of the Urals.
An encyclopedist scientist and a magnificent artist, he traveled about 34,000 km across Siberia in 10 years, laying the foundation for its scientific research.
Petersburg period of life (1743-1747)
Returning to St. Petersburg, he began processing the imported collections and diaries.
Botanical collections served as the basis for his multi-volume work “Flora of Siberia,” published in 8° during 1747-1759, which contained a description of almost 1178 species of Siberian plants, including 500 new species of flora, almost completely unknown in Europe before Gmelin’s travels, and 300 of their images. The first two volumes were edited by Gmelin himself, the third and fourth volumes were published under the editorship of S. G. Gmelin Jr., the author’s nephew, the fifth volume (spore plants) remained in manuscript.
Gmelin was one of the first to justify the division of Siberia into two natural-historical provinces: Western and Eastern Siberia, making extensive use of the botanical and zoological collections of the expedition for this purpose.
After the completed first volume was presented to the Academy of Sciences, Gmelin signed a new contract for four years. In accordance with this contract, he was again accepted as a member of the Academy of Sciences as a professor of botany and natural history with a salary of 1000 rubles per year. Gmelin asked at an academic meeting for permission to go to Germany for a period of one year, with the condition that during this time he would receive a salary and do work. He received such permission on June 1, 1747.
On August 5, 1747, Gmelin left for Tübingen, where from 1749 until his death in 1755 he was a professor of botany and chemistry at the local university. In 1748 and 1749, Gmelin’s guarantors - M.V. Lomonosov and G.F. Miller - paid 715 rubles for Gmelin who did not return. Gmelin later returned this money to the guarantors.
From 1751 to 1755 in Göttingen, he published his expedition diaries under the title “Travel through Siberia from 1741 to 1743” in 4 volumes. U Russian government The book was annoying. In it, Gmelin published his notes on the closed Kamchatka expedition and spoke disapprovingly of the activities Russian authorities in Siberia. The Academy of Sciences decided to issue a refutation of I. G. Gmelin. G. F. Miller and M. V. Lomonosov were instructed to write a refutation, but they refused. For censorship reasons, the book was not translated into Russian.
After his death, the scientist’s manuscripts and herbarium were taken to St. Petersburg and sold to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Since the first two volumes of “Flora of Siberia” were published before the systematic reform in botany of Carl Linnaeus, and in the rest Gmelin the Younger did not bring Gmelin’s botanical materials in accordance with Linnaeus’ taxonomy, most of the plant species new to Siberia described by Gmelin did not retain the authorship of I.G. Gmelin.
Proceedings
- "" G?ttingen, Verlegts Abram Vandenhoecks seel., Wittwe, 1751-1752 (German) (4 volumes, in 8°, with 7 maps and 18 drawings)
- "": gewesnen Adiuncti der Kayserl. Academie der Wissenschaften zu St. Petersburg; worinnen die bissher bekannt gemachte Nachrichten von deselben Reisen, Entdeckungen, und Tode, theils wiederleget, theils ergaenzet und verbessert werden. Frankfurt, 1748
- ""Henr. Theodor Plieninger. Addita Autographa lapide impressa Stuttgartiae, 1861
- Translation from the preface composed by Professor Gmelin to the first volume of Siberian Flora / Translation from German by S. P. Krasheninnikov. - St. Petersburg: Printing house of the Academy of Sciences, 1749
Plants named after I. G. Gmelin
In honor of I. G. Gmelin, Carl Linnaeus named the Gmelina genus (Gmelina L.) (Verbenovaceae family) and about 60 plant species.
The specific epithets of many plants are formed in honor of Gmelin on his behalf:
- Adenophora gmelinii (Spreng) Fisch.
- Angelica gmelinii (DC.) Pimenov - Gmelin's Angelica
- Artemisia gmelinii Web. ex Stechm. - Wormwood Gmelin
- Atriplex gmelinii C.A.Mey. - Quinoa Gmelin
- Betula gmelinii Bunge
- Bryanthus gmelinii D.Don. - Gmelin's moss flower
- Crepis gmelinii (L.) Tousch. - Skreda Gmelina
- Carex gmelinii Hook. & Arn. - Gmelin's sedge
- Elymus gmelinii (Ledeb.) Tzvelev - Gmelin's grasshopper
- Hedysarum gmelinii Ledeb.
- Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen. - Gmelin Larch
- Limonium gmelinii (Willd.) Kuntze - Kermek Gmelina
- Petassites gmelinii (Turcz. etDC.) Polunin
- Ranunculus gmelinii DC. - Buttercup Gmelina
- Rumex gmelinii Turcz. ex Ledeb. - Gmelin's sorrel
- Viola gmeliniana Schult. - Violet Gmelin
08 August 1709 - 20 May 1755
German naturalist in Russian service, doctor, botanist, ethnographer, traveler, explorer of Siberia and the Urals, adjunct in chemistry and natural history of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Based on the results of his research in Siberia, in 1747-1759, 4 volumes of the book “Flora of Siberia” were published, where descriptions of 1178 species of plants growing in Siberia were given. In 1751-1752, “Travel through Siberia” was published in four volumes in German.
On August 30, 1727, Gmelin was confirmed as an adjunct in chemistry and natural history.
He helped in the publication of the works of professor of botany I. H. Buxbaum.
Exploring Siberia
In 1724, Peter I equipped an expedition led by Vitus Bering to explore the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and the adjacent lands. This expedition, known as the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1729), left after the death of Emperor Peter. One of its tasks was to study the isthmus between America and Asia (the discovery of Semyon Dezhnev became known later). However, the expedition did not fully fulfill its objectives.
In connection with this, the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) was organized in 1733, also under the leadership of V. Bering. The number of participants reached 2,000 people: naval officers, scientists, artists, translators, administrative and technical workers. Among the naturalists who participated in the expedition were I. G. Gmelin, G. V. Steller, S. P. Krasheninnikov. The forces of various detachments compiled the first maps and descriptions of the Russian coast from Arkhangelsk to Kolyma, the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka; the nature, peoples and history of Siberia are described. Voyages were made to the shores of Japan and Northwestern America, and the Kuril and Aleutian Islands were examined along the way.
