Alexander Humboldt biography

Dromo's Den

Alexander Humboldt Biography

HUMBOLDT, Alexander, Baron von (1769-1859) A German naturalist and traveler. He was born in Berlin, Sept. 14, 1769. His father, who died in 1779, was a chamberlain to the King of Prussia; his mother was of Burgundian descent, and his youthful life was spent in the old castle of Tegel, near Potsdam. He studied, in company with his brother Karl Wilhelm (q.v.), first under private tutors, then at the universities of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Berlin, and Göttingen. His preference for scientific studies was strongly manifested in his early years and highly developed by the influence of Blumenbach and other university instructors. During his residence at Göttingen (1788 and 1789) he made geological examinations in the Harz Mountains and Rhine valley, which resulted in his first important publication, Ueber die Basalte am Rhein, nebst Untersuchungen über Syenit und Basanit der Alten (1790). In 1790 Humboldt made a tour through France, the Netherlands, and England, in company with Georg Forster, already eminent as a scientific traveler, whose influence was strong in shaping the younger man's career; and in 1791 he entered the Academy of Mining at Freiberg, Saxony, where Werner was then professor of geology. His eight months' residence at Freiberg gave him materials for several technical papers in chemistry and physics, and for some more elaborate essays, especially those upon the cryptogamous plants of the mines (Flora subterranea fribergensis, etc.). In consequence he was soon (1792) appointed superintendent of mines in the principalities of Bayreuth and Anspach and resided for the next three years at Bayreuth. The breadth of his interest and researches at this period is exemplified by his work and speculations on the nature of muscular and nervous force, entitled Versuche über die gereizte Muskelund Nervenfaser, nebst Vermutungen über den chemischen Prozess des Lebens in der Tier- und Pflanzenwelt (1797).

The desire for larger freedom and especially for exploratory, travel led Humboldt to resign his office in 1797. He had already in 1795 wandered about the Alps, studying geology, but further intended journeys to Sicily and up the Nile were prevented by political obstacles. The next three months were spent at Jena, in intimate association with Goethe, Schiller, and the men at the university, who then made an extraordinary circle of intellects; and here he began to plan for the great journey to Spanish America with which his fame is now most closely associated. In Paris he made the acquaintance of a talented young French botanist, Aimé Bonpland, who joined in his plans and was destined to be his principal colaborer. Meanwhile Humboldt was incessantly at work, and the years 1797–99 witnessed the publication of many notable contributions to science, among which those pertaining to the composition of the atmosphere were particularly notable. Many of these were brought together in his book Versuche über die chemische Zerlegung des Luftkreises (1799). At length, after spending some time in Spain and getting letters from the government, Humboldt and Bonpland sailed in a Spanish frigate from Coruña, in June, 1799. They visited Teneriffe, ascended the peak, and made valuable observations there as well as at sea during the voyage, which terminated at Cumana in Venezuela.

The travelers explored the region for upward of a year, crossing over to the upper waters of the Orinoco, and establishing the connection between that stream and the upper Amazon. The year 1801 was spent in explorations in Cuba, the basin of the Magdalena River, and in the Andes of Quito, the famous ascent of Chimborazo, to an altitude of about 19,000 feet, being accomplished in June, 1802. The explorations were then extended to Peru, where Humboldt devoted himself largely to the electrical and astronomical studies favored by the climate, but also acquired a valuable knowledge of the cinchona (quinine) plant and its culture. From Peru the two savants took ship for Mexico, landing at Acapulco in February, 1803. There they traveled for a year, Humboldt paying special attention to the determination of positions on the map and to volcanic phenomena, and then returned to Europe by way of Cuba and the United States (where several weeks were spent), reaching Bordeaux in August, 1804.

Humboldt now went to Paris and occupied himself with Bonpland in the arrangement of their manuscripts and collections, a large part of which, however, had been lost by a shipwreck; at the same time he pursued continuous experiments in physical chemistry. Having visited his brother, then Prussian Ambassador at Rome, and returned to Berlin, he accompanied Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, in 1807, on a political mission to France, and obtained leave from the government of his own country to remain thenceforth in Paris for the publication of the account of his travels. He enlisted the coöperation of Gay-Lussac, Cuvier, and many others of the most eminent French specialists of the day in the elaboration of his materials, and began in 1807 to publish the results in magnificent volumes (20 in folio and 10 in quarto, illustrated by 1425 copperplates). The title was Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent fait en 1799–1804 par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aimé Bonpland. The first 14 volumes were devoted to botany and were actually prepared mainly by C. S. Kunth; vols. xv and xvi were an "atlas pittoresque"; vols. xvii, xviii, xix, xxi, and xxii were devoted to physical geography, geognosy, and astronomy; vol. xx contained a "geography of plants"; vols. xxiii and xxiv were zoölogical; vols. xxv and xxvi were devoted to a sociological account of the countries of Spanish America; and vols. xxviii, xxix, and xxx contained Humboldt's narrative of his journey, which was left unfinished. The original of this work contains the Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, the Essai politique sur l'île de Cuba, and the Vues des Cordillères. Among the minor works of the great master, the Ansichten der Natur (1st ed., 1808) had an immediate and widespread welcome. It was translated into almost every European language and issued in English in both London and Philadelphia. The publication of the great Voyage continued at irregular intervals until 1827, and the volumes or groups of volumes appeared under individual titles, by which they are more usually known. The bibliography of Bruhns's biography of Humboldt disentangles the confusion of titles and editions which resulted, and to that the curious reader is referred. After Humboldt's death an octavo edition of his principal works was published in Paris (1864–66).

The favor of Frederick William III of Prussia, who had settled upon Humboldt a pension of 2500 thalers and later of 5000, required him to make frequent journeys with that monarch and at last he was summoned to reside at the court. In 1827, then, he took up his permanent residence in Berlin, and with much discontent endeavored to carry on his investigations amid uncongenial surroundings. One of the best results of his work at this period was his success in establishing for the first time international coöperation in furtherance of scientific observations. In 1827–28 he gave a series of remarkable lectures on physiography at Berlin, which formed the basis of his subsequent Kosmos. In 1829, under the patronage of the Russian government and accompanied by Ehrenberg and Gustav Rose, he made a rapid journey as far east as the Yenisei, one of the most striking results of which was the discovery of diamonds and other precious stones in the Ural Mountains, as Humboldt had predicted would be the case from his knowledge of their geology. Many geographical positions were astronomically determined, and erroneous views as to the physical geography of the northern interior of Russia were corrected. The record of this journey was first written by Humboldt as Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatique (1831) and afterward enlarged into Asie centrale, recherches sur les chaines de montagnes et la climatologie comparée (1843).

The subsequent years were spent in occasional diplomatic journeys and in the preparation of what he deemed the crowning monument of his intellectual life, his Kosmos, an encyclopædic account and explanation of the physical universe. Four volumes were written and published in Berlin, in 1845, 1847, 1850, and 1858. They were translated as fast as issued into many languages and created a profound impression.

He kept health and vitality and continued at work until the winter of 1858–59, when his strength declined. He died May 6, 1859, and was buried with royal honors at Tegel. After his death new editions of many of his works were issued, and several collections of his letters appeared.

Humboldt's influence upon scientific thought has been vast and far-reaching. "With him," says Agassiz, "ends a great period in the history of science—a period to which Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, Gay-Lussac, De Candolle, and Robert Brown belonged." His grasp of the universe as a whole was no less remarkable than his faculty of observing and explaining single phenomena. His scenic descriptions are strikingly picturesque. Humboldt has contributed to nearly every branch of science, either by direct investigation or by the accumulation of valuable material. He may be regarded as the founder of the modern science of physical geography, and he placed meteorology upon a firm basis. We can only allude to his observations on the cultivation of the soil in different climates and its effect upon civilization; his study of the languages, the architecture, and the customs of the ancient peoples of South and Central America; his discovery of the decrease in intensity of the earth's magnetic force from the poles to the equator; his fruitful labors in chemistry with Gay-Lussac; his experiments concerning the respiration of fishes; and his contributions to the science of geology (especially in the departments of petrography, vulcanology, and seismology).

Humboldt's published correspondence with some of the most distinguished men of his time, such as Goethe, Varnhagen, Pictet, Bunsen, Gauss, and Raumer, as well as with his brother Wilhelm, attests to the unparralleled breadth of his intellectual interests.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 583-584.