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Dr. Schoepf, at the time of his travels in America, 

 was in his thirty-second year. He was born March 8, 

 1752, at Wunsiedel, (birth-place of Jean Paul), in the 

 principality of Bayreuth, a town of the Fichtelberg and 

 a region of mines and quarries. His father was a mer- 

 chant well-to-do, who had him educated by tutors at 

 home, sent him to the Gymnasium at Hof, and, in 1770, 

 to the University of Erlangen. Schoepf's studies there 

 were primarily in medicine, but he followed lectures 

 in the natural sciences generally; Schreber and Esper 

 were his masters in botany and mineralogy. In 1773 

 he was at Berlin for work in forestry. Before taking 

 his degree at Erlangen, in 1776, he travelled, investi- 

 gating the mine country of Saxony, was in Bohemia, 

 studied at Prague and Vienna, traversed Carniola, 

 Northern Italy, and Switzerland. It was already plain 

 that he would not spend his life as an obscure prac- 

 ticioner. During 1776, at Ansbach, he thought of 

 going to India. The next year he was appointed chief 

 surgeon to the Ansbach troops destined for America, 

 and arrived at New York, June 4, 1777. After his 

 return to Europe, in 1784, Dr. Schoepf was diligent in 

 scientific research and held besides many positions of 

 public trust, dying September 10, 1800, as President 

 of the United Medical Colleges of Ansbach and 

 Bayreuth. 1 



1 Hirsch, Biogr. Lexikon der hervorrag. Aerzte oiler Zeiten 

 und Volker. Fr. Ratzel, in Allgem. Deutsche Biographie. 

 Edw. Kremers, Introd., Materia Medica Americana, Lloyd 



