Lavater brothers explained

The Lavater brothers were Johann Heinrich Lavater (baptised 21 February 1611 – 9 June 1691) and Johann Jacob Lavater (1594–1636), both Swiss physicians and naturalists.

Biography

The brothers were the sons of Heinrich Lavater, also a physician, and a professor of physics and mathematics in Zürich.^{[1] [2]}

Johann Heinrich gained his doctorate in Basel in 1647,^[3] and became a physician in Bern in 1653. In 1668 he prepared the Zürich Ordinance about plague.^[4] He became professor of medicine and natural history at the Carolinum, Zürich.^[1]

Little is known of Johann Jacob, except that he too was a physician and a naturalist.^[1]

Legacy

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort named the genus Lavatera (tree mallows) in the Malvaceae in their honour in 1753.^[1]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Charters. M.. The Eponym Dictionary of Southern African Plants Plant Names L-O. 12 October 2017.
2. Mörgeli, Christoph . Lavater, Heinrich . Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz . German.
3. Web site: Works of Lavater, Johann Heinrich . Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (database) . de. 12 October 2017.
4. Book: Lavater, Johann Heinrich . Neue Pestordnung der Statt Zürich: samt einem kurzen Bericht, wie man sich mit Gottes hülffe vor diser Krankheit bewahren, und dieselbige heilen sölle . Zürich . 1668 . de.