Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Burmeister, Karl Hermann Konrad

BURMEISTER, Karl Hermann Konrad, zoölogist, b. in Stralsund, Germany, 15 Jan., 1807; d. in Buenos Ayres, 1 May, 1891. He became professor of zoölogy at Halle in 1842; in 1848, during the revolutionary excitement, he was sent by the city of Halle as deputy to the national assembly, and subsequently by the town of Leibnitz to the first Prussian chamber. At the close of the session he travelled for two years in Brazil, and in 1861 was appointed director of the Museum of natural history at Buenos Ayres. He was also at the head of the academy of sciences, formed from the scientific faculty of the national university of Cordoba, Argentine Republic. Among his works are a “Treatise on Natural History” (Halle, 1830); “Manual of Entomology” (4 vols., 1832-4); “Natural History of the Calandra Species” (1837); “The History of Creation” (Leipsic, 1843); “Geological Pictures of the History of the Earth and its Inhabitants” (1851); and “The Animals of Brazil” (2 vols., 1854-'6). Dr. Burmeister has also published the “Anales del Museo Publico,” a scientific periodical which contained detailed descriptions of many new species, the originals of which are in the museum at Buenos Ayres. The huge edentates and other mammalia, which have rendered that museum, which was established by him, so famous, are described and pictured in this work.