Karl Nicolaus Lange

Background

Karl Nicolaus Lange was born on February 18, 1670, in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was the son of Johann Jakob Lange and Maria Barbara Meyer.

Education

Following graduation from high school in Lucerne, Lange began his studies of philosophy and liberal arts in Freiburg im Breisgau, which he completed in 1687. This was followed by medical studies in Bologna and Rome, where he received his doctorate in 1692.

Career

Lange held many official medical positions in the forest cantons of Switzerland. He worked as a physician in Waldshut, St. Blasien, Lucerne and Milan; in 1708 as a personal physician to the Duchess Maria Anna of Austria and in 1709-1741 as town doctor in Lucerne. From 1713 he was a councilor in Lucerne. Lange also created an extensive collection of petrefacts and founded Lucerne Nature Museum. He is said to have been a colleague of Scheuchzer. Yet the closeness of his relationship with Scheuchzer is open to question since the latter was a diluvialist. Lang’s works were well known but were often severely criticized by diluvialists, one of whom, John Woodward, successfully opposed Lang’s membership in the Royal Society of London.

Achievements

• Karl Nicolaus Lange went down in history as a prominent physician and collector of fossils who gave descriptions of many of the fossils of Switzerland. He is also remembered as the founder of Lucerne Nature Museum. Lang’s fossil descriptions were actively used, and his other works were well known both in Great Britain and on the Continent.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Caroli Nicolai Langii Historia Lapidum Figuratorum Helvetiae Ejusque Viciniae 1708
  • Methodus Nova Et Facilis Testacea Marina 1722

Views

Lange's principal concern was with marine fossils. Confronted with difficulties stemming both from the similarity of these fossils to living animals and their presence on land, especially in the mountains of Switzerland, Lang adopted a view similar to that of Lhwyd. According to Lang, the fossils originated from tiny, seminal seeds of living marine animals that were scattered around the earth by the air. Once distributed in this manner the seeds were carried into and through the earth by water. The heat of the earth activated a plastic force inherent in each seed, and the aura seminalis, or seminal breeze, gave the seed shape. Because this force was particularly strong in the icy waters and snow of the mountain tops, the fossils were more common in these areas. Lange was categorically opposed to the idea of their organic origin and particularly argued against the conception of the diluvialists that fossils were animals destroyed in the Flood.

Membership

Lange was a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Academia Scientiarum Bononiensis in Bologna.

• Member

  Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , Germany

• Member

  Academia Scientiarum Bononiensis , Italy

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Lang suffered a stroke in 1733 from which he never fully recovered.

Connections

Lange married Maria Anna Meyer of Altishofen on November 5, 1708. The couple had a son.

Father:

Johann Jakob Lange

Mother:

Maria Barbara Meyer

Spouse:

Maria Anna Meyer

opponent:

John Woodward

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7
  1973