Background

Christopher Girtanner was born on December 7, 1760, in St. Gallen, Switzerland. His father, Hieronymus, was a banker; his mother, Barbara Felicitas, was the daughter of the burgomaster Christoph Wegelin.

Education

Girtanner studied first at Lausanne and then at Göttingen where he obtained his doctorate in 1782 with a thesis on chalk, quicklime, and the matter of fire. He studied pediatrics at St. Gallen, and then visited Paris, Edinburgh, and London before returning to Göttingen in 1787.

Career

Girtanner spent some years in Britain, and apparently owned a salt manufactory near Edinburgh in 1789. He then settled in Göttingen, and in 1793 became a privy councillor to the duke of Saxe-Coburg.

Girtanner was attracted by the Brunonian theory and studied Lavoisier’s work on oxygen which he believed might be the principle of irritability. In 1790 he suggested this possibility in Rozier’s Observations sur la physique and was accused of plagiarizing John Brown. He then wrote critical expositions of the views of Brown and of Erasmus Darwin. Meanwhile, he had also published a book on pediatrics and another on venereal disease, arguing forcibly for the American origin of syphilis.

In 1791 published the first German version of the new chemical nomenclature. But his term for nonacidic oxides, Halbsäure, proved unacceptable, and his scheme for distinguishing such acids as sulfuric and sulfurous was unsuccessful. In 1792 he published his Anfangsgründe der antiphlogistischen Chemie, a textbook modeled upon Lavoisier’s, which saw three editions and was used by Berzelius.

Achievements

• Christopher Girtanner was a prominent physician and chemist. He is noted for his influential works in pediatrics and venereal diseases, including The Antiquity of Syphilis, published in 1796.

Works

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• book

  • Anfangsgründe Der Antiphlogistischen Chemie 1792
  • Observations On the Nature and Cure of Calculus 1797
  • Abhandlung über die venerische Krankheit 1788
  • Neue chemische Nomenklatur für die Deutsche Sprache 1791
  • Abhandlung Über Die Krankheiten Der Kinder Und Über Die Physische Erziehung Derselben 1794
  • Ueber Das Kantische Prinzip Für Die Naturgeschichte 1796
  • Ausführliche Darstellung des Brownischen Systems der Praktischen Heilkunde 1797

Views

Girtanner was an early convert to Lavoisier’s doctrines. According to Lavoisier, muriatic acid (hydrogen chloride) must, like all acids, be an oxide. Girtanner thought he had proved it to be an oxide of hydrogen, and nitrogen another oxide which could be prepared from steam. But unlike contemporary Germans who believed that water was thus proved the basis of all gases, he refused to accept that his experiments entailed a return to the phlogiston principle.

Membership

In 1790 Girtanner was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

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  Royal Society of Edinburgh , United Kingdom

  1790 - 1800

Personality

Girtanner was of a contentious disposition and published antirevolutionary works.

Connections

In 1790 Girtanner married Catherine Maria Erdmann. Their two sons both became naturalists.

Father:

Hieronymus Girtanner

Mother:

Barbara Felicitas Girtanner

Spouse:

Catherine Maria Erdmann

Grand-father:

Christoph Wegelin

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography