John Berkenhout

John Berkenhout ( born July 8, 1726 Yorkshire, † April 3, 1791 ) was an English physician, naturalist and writer.

Life and work

The father John Berkenhout sen. had settled with his wife Anne Kitchingman in Yorkshire. The son of John Berkenhout went to Leeds Grammar School and served in the Prussian and English army before he could finish his studies at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leyden. He received his doctorate in medicine in 1765. In Edinburgh he published the work " Clavis Linguae Anglicat " and other works on natural history. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a British agent.

In his works he first described in 1769, the brown rat, not the more famous Carl von Linné. He gave her the name of Mus norvegicus ( " Norwegian mouse "); 1821 was provided by JE Gray, together with the black rat ( Mus rattus Linnaeus as described ) in a new genus Rattus.

Works

• Clavis Linguae Anglicae
• Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland (1769 )
• Synopsis of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland (1789 )
• First lines of the theory and practice of philosophical chemistry. London: Cadell, 1788