Daniel Rolander

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (August 2007)

Daniel Rolander (Born 1725 in Hälleberga, Småland, Sweden. Died 1793 in Lund, Sweden.) was a Swedish biologist and "apostle" of Linnaeus.

In 1755, Rolander, who had studied at Uppsala University and become one of Linnaeus's apostles, went to Surinam to study and collect plants, which he sent back to Sweden. He recorded his seven months' activities in his journal, Diarium Surinamicum, quod sub itinere exotico conscripsit Daniel Rolander, tomus I & II, 1754-1756. Rolander's work was used by C. F. Rottboell as the basis of botanical publications later in the 18th century. Rolander also made extensive zoological observations, focusing on insects as was his wont. While in Surinam, he traveled and collected extensively around Paramaribo at first and then up the Suriname River. Fearing for his health, the naturalist sought passage to Europe, but, despite getting to Europe, he was not able to return to Sweden until October 1756, nine months after leaving the New World. Apparently because of his lack of help in getting home from Germany and his refusal to give his mentor access to the Surinam collections with first being offered an academic post, Rolander and Linneaus had a severe falling-out. Because of the latter's power and prestige in the academic world, he was able in effect to blackball Rolander. Thus, he was unable to gain an academic position and did not publish his findings, gradually drifting into obscurity and poverty due to some misfortune (e.g., death of a patron he had finally found) and his apparently abrasive personality. With his Latin journals now translated and published, his reputation is being rehabilitated.

[edit] Sources

  • Eisner, Thomas, Jayne Yack and Daniel J. Aneshansley 2001 "Acoustic Concomitants of the Defensive Discharges of a Primitive Bombardier beetle (Metrius contractus)," Chemoecology 11(4): 221-223.
  • http://www.ikfoundation.org/linnaeus/apostles/d-rolander.html
  • Pain, Stephanie 2007 "The Forgotten Apostle," New Scientist 195 (4 August 2007): 41-45.

[edit] See also

  • The Linnaeus Apostles - Global Science and Adventure: Daniel Rolander's Journal, translated by James Dobreff, David Morgan, Claes Dahlman and Josheph Tipton, ed. Lars Hansen. IK Foundation.