92 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Another traveller who deserves our attention, Johann David 

 Schcepf, [b. 17^2, cl., in Baireuth. 1800], the author of one of the 

 earliest monographs of the Testudinata, was a surgeon of merce- 

 nary troops under the Marcgrave of Anspach, and was one of 

 the hated '"Hessian" auxiliaries during the revolutionary war 

 ( 1 776-83) . While stationed at New York he wrote a paper upon 

 the Fishes of New York, which was published in Berlin in 1787. 

 This was the first special ichthyological paper ever written in 

 America or concerning American species. Immediately after the 

 treaty of peace in 17S3, Schoepf made an extensive tour through 

 the United States, proceeding from New York south to Florida 

 and the Bahamas. He was accompanied in his more southern 

 excursions by Prof. Marter and Dr. Stupicz, who with several 

 assistants had been sent to America from Vienna to make botan- 

 ical explorations. Schoepf s " Nord Amerikanische Reisen " is 

 full of interesting notes upon natural history, and describes nearly 

 all the scientific men at that time resident in the United States. 

 His kk Materia Medica Americana," published in 17S7 at Erlangen, 

 was a standard in its day.* 



One of the most prominent names in American natural history 

 is that of Johann Reinhold Forster, [b. 1729, d. 179S], who was 

 a leader in zoological studies in England during the last century. 

 He was a native of Germany, and at the time of his death Pro- 

 fessor of Botany at Halle. He spent many years in England, 

 and was the naturalist of Cooke's second voyage around the 

 world ( 1 772—75) . In 1771 he published in London, in an ap- 

 pendix to his translation of Kalm's Travels, " A Catalogue of the 

 Animals of North America, compiled from the writings of Lin- 

 naeus, Pennant, Brisson, Edwards and Catesby, and in the same 

 year a similar nominal catalogue of the plants of North America. 

 His account of the birds sent from Hudson's Bay, published in 

 1772, was a valuable contribution to American ornithology, 



♦Erlangen, 1788, 2 vols., 8°. 



