Eichwald, Eduard Ivanovich

Eduard Ivanovich Eichwald was a Baltic German and was born in Mitau , the capital of Courland . He studied medicine and science from 1814 to 1817 in Berlin , then in Paris , visited London, Switzerland and Austria. In 1819 he returned to Russia, passed the doctor’s exam for medicine in Vilna, and worked as a doctor in Skrund until his transfer to Derpt University in 1821 as a private assistant professor in zoology. In 1823 he received the Department of Zoology at Kazan University , where at the same time he taught obstetrics with gynecology .

In the years 1826-1827 Eichwald traveled through the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea , studying the fauna, flora and geology of these places. In 1829 he moved to the Department of Zoology at the University of Vilnius . In 1837 he moved as a professor of zoology, comparative anatomy and mineralogy at the Vilna Medical and Surgical Academy , where he served until 1851. In 1846 he received the title of Doctor of Surgery honoris causa from the Medical and Surgical Academy and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Breslav. Eichwald read paleontology at the Petersburg Mining Institute (1839–1855) and mineralogy at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy on top of lectures at the Academy .

Eichwald's scientific activities were very diverse; it concerned medicine, zoology, botany, paleontology, geology, mineralogy, anthropology, ethnography and archeology; With his works, Eichwald contributed a lot to familiarization with the domestic fauna and flora of both living and fossil forms.

Eichwald’s works in the field of paleontology of Russia are of especially great scientific importance, expressed in a number of scientific articles and notes, and especially in the first grandiose attempt to give a complete description and image of all the paleontological material collected in Russia. This work, “Paleontology of Russia”, later published by the author with additions and in French under the title “Paleontologie de la Russie”, is not without serious flaws, depending partly on the nature of the compiler, in his old age a little self-confident, inclined towards enthusiasm, who did not like to admit that he admitted errors, partly due to the quality of the material that has been studied, often collected by inexperienced people, obtained by Eichwald from second, third hands, why the attribution of the described forms to a specific area and definition ennym deposits are not always trustworthy. For all that, the work of Eichwald is still a reference book, absolutely necessary for anyone involved in the paleontology of Russia, and the Eichwald collections and especially the originals of the fossils described by Eichwald in this work are an adornment of the paleontological collection of the Imperial St. Petersburg University .

• "Observationes ex anatomia comparata de Delphino et de Physalia" ("Acta Acad. Sc.", 1824);
• "Introductio in historiam naturalem Caspii maris" (Kazan, 1824);
• “Zoologia specialis” (3 volumes, Vilna, 1829-1831);
• "Ueber den Kiemendeckel der Fische nebst vergleichenden Untersuchungen uber das Zungenbein der Wirbelthiere" ("Isis", 1832);
• "Plantarum novarum quas in itinere caspio-caucasico observavit" (Vilna, 1831-1838);
• "Oriktognosy mainly in relation to Russia ...", 1844
• "Geognosy mainly in relation to Russia", 1846
• "Beschreibung der devonischen Fische von Pawlovsk" ("Bull. Soc. Nat.", 1844 and 1846);
• Die Urwelt Russlands (4 issues, St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1840-1848);
• “Naturhistorische Bemerkungen als Beitrag zur vergleichenden Geognosie auf einer Reise durch die Eifel, Tyrol etc.” (Mem. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1851);
• “Beitrage zur Geologie und Palaontologie Russlands” (“Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou”, 1853 and 1854);
• “Die Fauna und Flora des Grunsandes von Moskwa” (ibid., 1861).
• "Paleontology of Russia", part 1‒2, 1854‒61
• "Paleontologie de la Russie" 4 volumes with a satin, 1860-1868

• Adelung N.N. Eichwald, Eduard Ivanovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Profile of Eduard Ivanovich (Karl Eduard) Eichwald on the official website of the RAS
• The biography and bibliography of E. I. Eichwald in the Information System “History of Geology and Mining”, GIN RAS