George Bennett (naturalist)

George Bennett ( born January 31, 1804 in Plymouth, England; † September 29, 1893 in Sydney, Australia ) was a British- Australian physician and naturalist.

Life

Since his youth fascinated by the sea, Bennett took the age of 15 his first voyage to Ceylon. In 1821 he returned to England and studied first in Plymouth and then at the Middlesex Hospital and at the Hunterian School of Medicine, where he met renowned surgeons such as Charles Bell, Herbert Mayo ( 1796-1852 ) and Caesar Hawkins, who influenced him greatly. On March 7, 1828, he obtained his diploma Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the meantime, Bennett made ​​the acquaintance of Richard Owen, who taught at the time as a lecturer in comparative anatomy at the medical school of St Bartholomew 's Hospital. Owen was the leading British anatomist comparative his time and his influence, particularly with regard to paleontology, made ​​itself felt during Bennett's entire career in Australia.

Bennett's forays 1828-1835 spanned large areas of the Pacific. After he returned from a trip to England in 1831, he brought with him a large collection of plants, a living Gibbon from Singapore and a six-year, local girl named Elau of the New Hebrides, which was to be sacrificed by a hostile tribe. Elau was the first indigenous person from the New Hebrides, which was brought to England, where she died in Plymouth in 1834. Bennett has written numerous scientific articles on his excursions. This work included in particular discussions of plants, a description of a live specimen of Perlboots and comments on certain elements of the Australian fauna. With these writings, Bennett qualified as a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and as a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London.

1829 Bennett visited Australia for the first time and in the spring of 1832 he entered the second time Australian mainland, where he of " the beauty of the plant world, which is so rich and wasteful in this colony " was immediately impressed. This was followed by excursions into the interior. He researched so eager that he was able to send Owen many copies existent fauna and a considerable number of fossils. Bennett wrote in 1835 in the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London the article "Notes on the Natural History and Habits of the Ornithorhyncus paradoxus, Blum ," one of the earliest scientific treatises on the platypus ( Ornithorhyncus paradoxus ). 1834, the two-volume work Wanderings in New South Wales ... Being the Journal of a Naturalist was published. Bennett was praised for its good writing work and his generally sound observation, he made the only mistake regarding the Nistverhaltens the lyre tail, where he was apparently run by Aboriginal astray.

Back in England, Bennett was awarded in recognition of his contributions to zoological research with the Honorary Gold Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1836 he moved permanently over to Australia, where he established a successful medical practice in Sydney and a leading figure in the newly formed Australian Museum and in the acclimatization Society and in the New South Wales Zoological Society (later Royal Society of New South Wales) was. Bennett's cooperation with the Museum, where he worked as First Secretary and Curator, extended over many years. In the meantime he supported zoologist who came to visit, acted as agent for the ornithologist John Gould and maintained a steady correspondence with Owen and other researchers. In 1860 he published his second book, Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia. 1890 Bennett was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales, in honor of the geologist William Branwhite Clarke ( 1798-1878 ) will be given.

Bennett was married three times. From the first marriage two sons and three daughters were born, a son from the second and from the third, two children who died in infancy.

Dedikationsnamen

George Bennett is honored with numerous animal and plant taxa, these include the Bennettkasuar ( casuarius bennetti ) Flindersia bennettiana, the Bennett Tree Kangaroo ( Dendrolagus bennettianus ) Diporiphora bennettii, Myrrophis bennettii and the extinct Rotalgenart Vanvoorstia bennettiana. The Tasmanian subspecies of Rotnackenwallabys is also known as Bennett kangaroo.

Works (selection)

• Bennett, George ( 1834). Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore and China: being the journal of a naturalist in Those countries, falling on 1832, 1833 and 1834 ( Vol. 1) London: Richard Bentley, University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, China Through Western Eyes
• Bennett, George ( 1834). Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore and China: being the journal of a naturalist in Those countries, falling on 1832, 1833 and 1834 ( Vol. 2) London: Richard Bentley, University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, China Through Western Eyes