BLUMENBACH, Johann Friedrich, German naturalist of distinction: b. Gotha, 11 May 1752; d. Gottingen, 22 Jan. 1840. He studied at Jena and Gottingen, and was ap pointed in the latter, in 1776, extraordinary pro fessor of medicine and inspector of the museum of natural history, and in 1778 ordinary pro fessor. In 1812 he was appointed secretary to the Royal Society of Sciences at Gottingen, in 1816 became physician to the King of Great Britain and Hanover, in 1821 was made a knight-commander of the Guelphic Order, and in 1831 was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. In celebration of his medical jubilee (1825) traveling scholarships were founded to assist talented young physi cians and naturalists. In 1835 he retired. The first work which brought him into notice was the 'De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa,' and from its publication in 1775 he continued almost for 60 years to exert a powerful influence on the progress of science. Among his numerous
published works are the 'Institutiones Physio logic•) (1787), long a textbook in many of the most celebrated schools of Europe; the 'Hand buch der vergleichenden Anatomic' book of Comparative Anatomy,' 1805) and 'Collectio Craniorum Diversarum Gentium> (1790-1828). The last work gives descriptions and figures of his collection of skulls, one of the most extensive in existence, and is still pre served at Gottingen. Blumenbach held decidedly that the human race formed only one species, and had originally descended from a single pair; but he divided it into the five varieties of Caucasian, Mongolian, Negro, American and Malay. Consult Mark's 'Memoir' (1840).