Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crantz's Classis cruciformium..., 1769

Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz (Roodt, Luxemburg, November 25, 1722 – January 18, 1797, Judenburg, Austria) was a botanist and a physician.

He obtained his doctorate of medicine in Vienna in 1750. He was one of the first pupils of Gerard van Swieten (1700–1772).

He studied obstetrics with André Levret (1703–1780) and with Nicolas Puzos (1686–1753) in Paris as well as in London.

He was first married to Anna Susanne Petrasch and then to Magda Lena de Tremon. He had two sons and one daughter.

He became a lecturer in obstetrics at St. Mary's Hospital in Vienna in 1754. From 1756 to 1774, he taught physiology and medicine at the university in that city.

He was the author of Einleitung in eine Warhe und gegründete Hebammenkunst (1756), Commentarius de rupto in partus doloribus a foetu utero (1756), Commentatio de instrumentorum in arte obstetricia historia utilitate et recta ac praepostera applicatione (1757), De systemate irritabilitatis (1761), Materia medica et chirurgica (three volumes, 1762), De aquis medicatis principatus Transsylvaniae (1773), and Die Gesundbrunnen der Österreichischen Monarchie (1777).

He recommended better methods of hygiene for midwives. In addition to his work in medicine, he studied chemistry, botany, and the sources of mineral water.

The standard author abbreviation Crantz may be used to indicate this person in citing a botanical name.