Xavier Mertz

Xavier Guillaume Mertz ( born October 6, 1882 in Basel, † January 7, 1913 at the Georg V. Land, Antarctica ) was a Swiss scientist who was known mainly as a member of the expedition under Douglas Mawson with the Aurora.

Life

He had academic degrees from the universities of Leipzig and Bern ( Dr. jur. ), Was Swiss champion in skiing and in addition a successful climbers.

Mertz was a member of the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson 1911-1914. The main object of this expedition was the mapping of the Antarctic coast of the Oates Coast to the Queen Mary Coast. The base was located on Adelie Land; Mertz was responsible along with Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis for the Greenlandic sled dogs.

On November 10, 1912 Mawson, Ninnis and Mertz left the base to explore the King George's land. When they came over the Ninnis Glacier later named after him, Ninnis fell into a crevasse. With him went six dogs, a large proportion of food and other essential items lost. The two survivors had only food for ten days, but were gone 315 miles from the camp. To survive, Mawson and Mertz killed the dogs to eat it. It was long believed that his death was a result of vitamin A toxicity ( hypervitaminosis A), which he had contracted by eating the dog liver. A recent study comes to the conclusion, however, that the organism of the hitherto strictly vegetarian and living under severe mental stress Manns has the transition to a purely carnal diet is not tolerated. On January 1, 1913 Mertz complained of abdominal pain, then fell more and more and had to be transported from Mawson to the slide. 100 miles before saving Camp Mertz lapsed into delirium and died.

The Mertz Glacier and lake - ditch close to the glaciers were named after him.

Works

• The proprietary Licence, in particular the Licenzzwang. Stämpfli, Bern 1907 ( zugl. dissertation, University of Bern )