Fritz Müller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Swiss doctor and zoologist, see Fritz Müller (doctor)
Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (March 31, 1821–May 21, 1897) was a German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he studied the natural history of the Amazon rainforest and was an early advocate of evolutionary theory. Müllerian mimicry is named after him.
Müller was born in Windischholzhausen, near Erfurt, Germany, on March 31, 1821, the son of a minister. As a medical student, he began to question religion and in 1846 became an atheist, joining the Free Congregation and supporting free love. He then refused to swear his medical oath because it contained the phrase "so help me God and his sacred Gospel" and was disappointed by the failure of the Prussian Revolution in 1848. As a result, he emigrated to Brazil in 1852 with Hermann Blumenau to the new colony of Blumenau.
Müller wrote Für Darwin in 1864, arguing that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection that had been advanced five years before in The Origin of Species was correct, arguing that Brazilian crustaceans and their larvae could be affected by adaptations at any growth stage. This was translated into English by W.S. Dallas as Facts and Arguments for Darwin in 1869. Müller corresponded with Charles Darwin, Hermann Müller, Alexander Agassiz, Ernst Krause, and Ernst Haeckel.
Between 1874 and 1891, Müller worked as a travelling naturalist for the Brazilian National Museum, working with basic materials. He was a contemporary of several other foreign naturalists and scientists who were invited by Pedro II of Brazil to work at the museum, such as Émil Goeldi and Hermann von Ihering.
[edit] Biographies
- A biography in German, see Alfred Moeller (1920): Fritz Mueller. Werke, Briefe und Leben
- A more modern biography is given by David A. West. Fritz Müller: A Naturalist in Brazil. Blacksburg: Pocahontas Press, 2003. ISBN 0-936015-92-6
