Jacob Theodor Klein
Jacob Theodor Klein (nickname Plinius Gedanensium; 15 August 1685 – 27 February 1759) was a German jurist, historian, botanist, zoologist, mathematician and diplomat in service of Polish King August II the Strong.
Life
Klein was born on 15 August 1685 in Danzig (Gdańsk) in Poland. Klein studied natural history and used his position as the secretary of the city to found a botanical garden there (now called Ogród Botaniczny w Oliwie). His son-in-law was Daniel Gralath, a physicist who would become mayor.
Klein dealt with small matters of zoological nomenclature and set up his own system of classification of animals, which was based on the number, shape, and position of the limbs. For his work in the field of natural science, Klein had been awarded the membership of several scientific societies, including the Royal Society in London and the Danzig Research Society. He was also a correspondent of the Lutheran pastor Friedrich Christian Lesser. He died 27 February 1759 in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).
Works
- Natürliche Ordnung und vermehrte Historie der vierfüssigen Thiere. Schuster, Danzig 1760
- Vorbereitung zu einer vollständigen Vögelhistorie. Schmidt, Leipzig, Lübeck 1760
- Stemmata avium. Holle, Leipzig 1759
- Tentamen herpetologiae. Luzac jun., Leiden, Göttingen 1755
- Doutes ou observations de M. Klein, sur la revûe des animaux, faite par le premier homme, sur quelques animaux des classes des quadrupedes & amphibies du systême de la nature, de M. Linnaeus. Bauche, Paris 1754
- Ordre naturel des oursins de mer et fossiles, avec des observations sur les piquans des oursins de mer, et quelques remarques sur les bélemnites ... Bauche, Paris 1754
- Tentamen methodi ostracologicæ sive Dispositio naturalis cochlidum et concharum in suas classes, genera et species. Wishoff, Leiden 1753
- Quadrupedum dispositio brevisque historia naturalis. Schmidt, Leipzig 1751
- Historiae avium prodromus. Schmidt, Lübeck 1750
- Mantissa ichtyologica de sono et auditu piscium sive Disquisitio rationum, quibus autor epistolae in Bibliotheca Gallica de auditu piscium, omnes pisces mutos surdosque esse, contendit. Leipzig 1746
- Historiæ piscium naturlais promovendæ missus quartus de piscibus per branchias apertas spirantibus ad justum numerum et ordinem redigendis. Gleditsch & Schreiber, Leipzig, Danzig 1744
- Summa dubiorum circa classes quadrupedum et amphibiorum in celebris domini Caroli Linnaei systemate naturae. Leipzig, Danzig 1743
- Naturalis dispositio echinodermatum. Schreiber, Danzig 1734
- Descriptiones tubulorum marinorum. Knoch, Danzig 1731
- An Tithymaloides. Schreiber, Danzig 1730
Notes
References
- Geus, Armin: Die Kontroverse von R. A. F. de Réaumur und J. Th. Klein über Bau und Wachstum der Schneckenschalen. in Janus. no. 65, Amsterdam 1978