Background
Friedrich Casimir Medicus was born on January 6, 1736, in Grumbach, Holy Roman Empire (now Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany).
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
Medicus studied medicine at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.
4 Rue Blaise Pascal, 67081 Strasbourg, France
Medicus studied medicine at the University of Strasbourg.
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Medicus studied medicine at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg.
Medicus was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Medicus was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Friedrich Casimir Medicus was born on January 6, 1736, in Grumbach, Holy Roman Empire (now Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany).
Medicus studied medicine at the universities of Tübingen, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg.
In 1759 Friedrich Casimir Medicus became a garrison doctor at Mannheim, in the Palatinate (Pfalz) then ruled by the Elector Carl Theodor. The latter founded in 1763 the Academia Electoralis Scientarium et Elegantiarum Literarum Theodoro-Palatina of Mannheim and in 1766 an associated botanic garden at Medicus’ instigation.
In 1766 Medicus spent five months on sick leave in Paris, becoming friendly with the botanists Duhamel du Monceau, Bernard de Jussieu, and Adanson, all of whom favored the generic concepts and nomenclature of Tournefort rather than those of Linnaeus, his successor.
Returning to Mannheim, Medicus abandoned medicine for botany and became director of the Mannheim botanic garden. In his many publications based on the study of living plants, he thereafter never lost an opportunity to criticize the works and character of Linnaeus.
It is uncertain how widely his works, written mostly in German rather than Latin, were read at the time. He undoubtedly greatly influenced Conrad Moench at Marburg, whose relatively well-known Methodus plantas horti botanici et agri Marburgensis (1794-1802) brought the same Tournefortian concepts and names to more general notice, although their valid post-Linnaean publication dates from Miller’s Gardeners Dictionary Abridged of 1754. Unfortunately, both the Mannheim academy and garden, to which Medicus had given so much attention, suffered almost irreparable damage when Mannheim was heavily bombarded in 1795 and 1799. The academy was closed, its books sold, and the garden did not long outlast the death of Medicus in 1808.
Medicus angrily called attention to a basic practical weakness of Linnaeus’ generic descriptions: being originally based on the study of one or two species, they often failed to cover adequately other species later added by Linnaeus to the genus by virtue of similarity in habit rather than technical details. He restored many Tournefortian genera and rejected many Linnaean generic names.
Medicus was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Medicus's personality can be characterized as bitter, witty, and sarcastic.
Friedrich Casimir Medicus married Carolina Koch. They had a son Ludwig Walrad Medicus.