Thomas Say

Thomas Say (* June 27, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; ∞ January 4, 1827 Lucy Way Sistare ( 1801-1886 ) in New Harmony, Indiana, † October 10, 1834 ibid ) is regarded by many as the father of American entomology. He was the first American entomologist and a scientist in the fields of Conchologie ( shell client ) and cancerology ( deals with the crustaceans ).

Life

He was the great grandson of the co-founder of the American Philosophical Society, John Bartram (1699-1777), and the great-nephew of William Bartram ( 1739-1823 ). The whole family consisted of members of a Quaker sect. Says statement that he was a member of the Society of Friends, a Quaker sect, meant that he was expelled from school. He then went to the Friends' Academy of Weston, a few miles outside of Philadelphia. Later he then helped his father Benjamin Say (1755-1813), a respected doctor and pharmacist and later Congressman, in the pharmacy and collected beetles and butterflies. Although he was interested in more for natural history, his father moved him to continue his pharmacy.

In Philadelphia, the first American Natural History Museum was built. It will be exhibited there thousands of insects and other animals, as well as Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Angora cat and one of the golden pheasants of former U.S. President George Washington ( 1732-1799 ). Say was very interested for this museum and spent much of his free time there.

In 1812, the pharmacy made ​​bankrupt and Say devoted himself to the rest of his life, his true love, the natural history. Since then, he co-founded the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1812, he was a member of the Charter. He was appointed there to the curator of the library and collections; not a big task, because at that time, was the number of exhibits to less than ten domestic insect pests, some coral and shells, a dried representatives of the frog fish ( Batrachoididae ) and a conserved through stuffing monkeys. In 1817 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

In 1821, Say was employed for six years as a curator at the American Philosophical Society. From 1822 to 1828 he served as Professor of Natural History at the University of Pennsylvania. Later he left Philadelphia for ever and joined the Robert Owen (1771-1858) and William Maclure established Boatload of Knowledge ( dt: a boatload of knowledge ) in which was located on a cargo boat in New Harmony in the Wabash River and a team of scientists presented. He was also a member of the Utopian community of Rappites, a German religious sect that developed there. Say married 1827 in New Harmony secretly Lucy Way Sistare, an artist and illustrator of Conchologie and first female member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and spent his remaining years there. The climate on the Wabash River sat him but health was, he got a stomach muscle weakness and suffered dysentery. He was advised to return to the better air-conditioned home, but he would not give up their hard-won friendships in New Harmony, and remained there, where he died of typhoid fever at the age of 47 years.

Research trips

Say undertook beginning in 1818, the President of the Academy of Natural Sciences, William Maclure ( 1763-1840 ) and two other colleagues, Titian Ramsay Peale ( 1799-1885 ) and George Ord ( 1781-1866 ), a research trip to the Sea Islands of Georgia, primarily to collect up to East Florida to other species; However, this ended abruptly when Indians attacked him.

Then he was invited to 18 months as a zoologist and botanist to Major Stephen Harriman Long's ( 1784-1864 ) scientific expedition in 1803 -purchased by France Louisiana colony. The trip was 1819/20 from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, Say learned a lot about Indians and fauna along the route. One of the insects described Say on this expedition, was in 1824 the Colorado potato beetle ( Leptinotarsa ​​decemlineata ), originally from America and has now spread around the world. Despite their success this trip but also paid tribute to their toll: exhausted and half-starved, the research group came back with only a few horses, many of the travel diaries Say stole from deserters. As a senior zoologist Major Long invited him in 1823 to a second expedition, this time to the origin of the Mississippi, Lake Itasca.

Publications

Say described over 1500 species of insects. In 1816/17 he took the manuscript Conchology. out that the American edition of William Nicholson (1753-1815) British encyclopedia. came with. It was the first work on domestic shell molluscs an American author. Say 1824-28 published a three -volume work on American Entomology, American entomology or Descriptions of the insects of North America.

Works

• Oeuvres de entomologiques Th Say. Lequien fils, Paris 1837 p.m.
• Descriptions of new species of curculionites of North America. New Harmony 1831st
• American conchology. School Press, New Harmony 1830-38 p.m.
• Descriptions of new species of North American insects. New Harmony 1829-33.
• A glossary to Say 's Entomology. Mitchell, Philadelphia 1825.
• American entomology or Descriptions of the insects of North America. Mitchell, Philadelphia 1824-28.
• American entomology or Descriptions of the insects of North America ... Mitchell & Ames, Philadelphia 1817. (Preliminary)
• Participation in: E. James: Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the years 1819, 1820, by order of the Hon JC Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of Major Stephen H. Long. Vol 2 and 3, HC Carey & I. Lea, Philadelphia 1823

Bibliography

• Claus Nissen: The zoological book illustration. Your bibliography and history. Volume I: Bibliography. Anton Hiersemann Verlag Stuttgart 1969. Pages 361-362 and 460 ( 2nd column ).

Biography

• Benjamin Hornor Coates: A Biographical Sketch of the late Thomas Say, Esq. Philadelphia 1835.
• Patricia Tyson Stroud: Thomas Say. Philadelphia 1992. ISBN 0-812-23103-1