Friedrich Ruysch ( 1638 - 1731 )

Birth Place: The Hague, Netherlands (23 March 1638) Death Place: Amsterdam, Netherlands (22 February 1731) Profession: Pharmacist; Physician Research Field: Botany, obstetrics, anatomy, medicine Education: ?Grammar school at The Hague; apprenticed to an apothecary; Leyden; MD (1664) Career: Opened a pharmacy at The Hague (1661); practised as a physician at The Hague (1664-1667), then at Amsterdam (1667-death); Praelector of Anatomy for the Surgeons' Guild of Amsterdam (1666-1731); moved to Amsterdam (1667); City Obstetrician of Amsterdam (1672-1712); Doctor to the Court of Justice (1679), in which capacity he gained considerable experience in forensic medicine; Professor of Botany at the Athenaeum Illustre and supervisor of the Botanical Gardens (1685), Pieter Hotton (FRS 1703) was his assistant (1692); lectured on anatomy to foreign visitors; developed a method of preserving corpses which was said to make them look most lifelike, the first adult on whom he tried it was the English Admiral Berkeley (1666); Peter the Great acquired his collection (1713) and King John Sobieski of Poland acquired a later collection which he gave to the University of Wittenberg; fractured his 'collum femoris' and died of a fever Memberships: Academia Leopoldina-Carolina (1705); Academie Royale des Sciences (1727) Membership: Fellow Election Date: 9/06/1715 Proposers: Richard Bradley in a letter to Robert Balle.