CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED

See also:

• CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED EHRENBERG (1795-1876)

EHRENBERG (1795-1876)  , German naturalist, was born at Delitzsch in Saxony on the 19th of April 1795 . After studying at Leipzig and Berlin, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine in 1818, he was appointed professor of medicine in the university of Berlin (1827) . Mean-while in 1820 he was engaged in a scientific exploration conducted by General von Minutoli in Egypt . They investigated parts of the Libyan desert, the Nile valley and the northern coasts of the Red Sea, where Ehrenberg made a special study of the corals . Subsequently parts of Syria, Arabia and Abyssinia were examined . Some results of these travels and of the important collections that had been made were reported on by Humboldt in 1826; and afterwards Ehrenberg was enabled to bring out two volumes Symbclae physicae (1828-1834), in which many particulars of the mammals, birds, insects, &c., were made public . Other observations were communicated to scientific societies . In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt through eastern Russia to the Chinese frontier . On his return he gave his attention to microscopical researches . These had an important bearing on some of the infusorial earths used for polishing and other economic purposes; they added, moreover, largely to our knowledge of the microscopic organisms of certain geological formations, especially of the chalk, and of the modern marine and freshwater accumulations . Until Ehrenberg took up the study it was not known that considerable masses of rock were composed of minute forms of animals or plants . He demonstrated also that the phosphorescence of the sea was due to organisms .

He continued until

late in life to investigate the microscopic organ-isms of the deep sea and of various geological formations . He died in Berlin on the 27th of June 1876 .