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left Upsal for the purpose of visiting Paris and the uni- 

 versities of Holland. Whilst in Amsterdam, he became 

 acquainted with the botanists and florists of that city, and, 

 they suggested to him the desirableness of some person 

 visiting Japan for the purpose of exploring its vegetable 

 treasures. Thunberg immediately offered his services, and 

 a situation as surgeon to one of the Dutch East India Com- 

 pany's vessels having been obtained for him, he left Am- 

 sterdam for Japan in the year 1771. He landed at the 

 Cape of Good Hope for the purpose of learning amongst 

 the Dutch settlers there the Dutch language, which is the 

 only European language spoken extensively in Japan, and 

 also in the hope of adding to his knowledge of natural ob- 

 jects by researches in Africa. Here he made several ex- 

 cursions into the interior, visiting various of the native 

 tribes, and after having remained at the Cape three winters, 

 where he collected much valuable information, he set sail 

 in 1//3 for Java and the Japan Isles. He remained in 

 these islands five years, making large collections of the 

 plants of these countries, as well as observations on the 

 habits, manners, and language of their inhabitants. His 

 ability to labour, however, during his residence both in 

 i and Asia, was very much diminished by a frightful 

 accident which he met with on first leaving Holland. The 

 keeper of the stores in the ship, having inadvertently 

 given out white lead instead of flour, it was mixed with 

 flour and used for making pancakes, of which the whole 

 crew partook. All were ill, and many suffered very 

 severely at the time, but none was so bail as Thunberg"; 

 he only gradually recovered his health, and through his 

 long life always laboured under the debility and derange- 

 ment his system had thus received. He returned to his 

 native country in 1779, making first a short stay in Eng- 

 land. Here he iormed the acquaintance of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Dryander, and Solander, and availed himself of the 

 extensive collection of plants from all parts of the world, 

 and valuable library of Sir Joseph, for the purpose of 

 adding to his botanical knowledge. During his absence 

 he had been made demonstrator of botany at Upsal in 

 1777, and in 1784 was installed in the chair of the great 

 Liniwus as professor of botany. In 1785 he was made a 

 knight of the order of Wasa, and in 1815 commander of 

 the same order. 



On gaining his home, Thunberg immediately com- 

 menced arranging the vast mass of materials he had col- 

 lected in his travels for the purpose of publication. His 

 first important work was a description of the Japanese 

 plants, which was published at Leipzig in 1784, with the 

 title, ' Flora Japonica, sistens Plantas Insularum Japonica- 

 rum, secundum Systema Sexuale emendatum,' 8vo., and 

 illustrated with thirty-nine engravings. In this work a 

 great number of new plants were described and arranged 

 according to the Linnaean system, in which he ventured to 

 dispense with the three classes called Monoscia, Dioacia, 

 and Polyjramia. He subsequently published some bota- 

 nical observations on this ' Flora,' in the second volume of 

 the ' Transactions ' of the Linnaean Society. 



In 1788 he commenced the publication of an account of 

 his travels, under the title, ' Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia, 

 forattad aren 1770-1779,' Upsal., 8vo. This work was 

 completed in four volumes, and contains a full account of 

 his eventful life, from the time he started from Upsal with 

 his Kohrean pension, till he returned to the same place 

 laden with treasures from a hitherto unexplored region. 

 In these volumes he has taken great pains to collect all 

 possible information on the medicinal and dietetic proper- 

 ties of plants in the countries he visited, as well as their 

 uses in rural and domestic economy. He recommends 

 al new plants for cultivation in Europe as substitutes 

 for those in present use. This work also gives a simple 

 and pleasing account of the original natives of the places 

 in which he sojourned, as well as of the European settlers. 

 It has been translated into German by Groskund, and 

 published at Berlin in 1792. It appeared in English at 

 in in 1793, and in French at Paris in 1796. His next 

 work was a ' Proilromus Plantarum Capensinm, Annis 

 1772-1775 eollectarum,' Upsaliae, 1794-1800; being an 

 account of the plants he had collected at the Cape. From 

 to ist)5 hi' published in folio, under the title ' Icones 

 arum Japonicarum,' Upsaliae, a series of plates illus- 

 (! of the Botany of the, Japan Isles. Tin- 

 lowed by the ' Flora Capensis,' Upsaliae, 1807-1-'! ''>- In 

 thi work the most complete view of the botany of the 



Cape of Good Hope is given that has hitherto been pub- 

 lished. In 1807, in conjunction with Billberg, he pub- 

 lished the ' Plantarum Brasiliensium Decas Prima,' Upsali.v;, 

 4to. In this work the plants collected by Freireiss arid 

 SauerlUnder, in the province of Minas Gerae's in Brazil, are 

 described ; but the subsequent parts were published by 

 other hands. 



Besides the above works, on which the reputation of 

 Thunberg as a traveller and a botanist mainly rests, he was 

 the author of almost countless memoirs and academical 

 dissertations. The subjects of these were chiefly those 

 which his long residence in Africa and Asia atforded. 

 The majority of them are upon botanical topics, not a few 

 however are devoted to a consideration of zoological sub- 

 jects. Although botany was his primary object in his 

 travels, he yet lost no opportunity of obtaining a know- 

 ledge of the new animals he met with, and several of his 

 papers are descriptions of these. He published several me- 

 moirs in the London ' Philosophical Transactions,' and the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Linnsean Society, also in the Trans- 

 actions of Russian, German, French, and Dutch scientific 

 Societies and Journals, and a much greater number in 

 those of Sweden. The academical dissertations bearing 

 his name, and presented at the university of Upsal, are 

 nearly one hundred in number, and were published be- 

 tween the years 1789 and 1813. 



Thunberg was elected an honorary member of sixty-six 

 learned societies. He died at the advanced age of eighty- 

 five, on the 8th of August, 1828. 



Retzius named a genus of plants in the natural Order 

 Aeanthaceae, in honour of him, Thunbergia. The follow- 

 ing genera of plants have species named after him : 

 Ixia, Isolepis, Cyperus, Imperata, Spatalla, Convolvulus, 

 Campanula, Gardenia, Atriplex, Hydrocotyle, Rhus, Cras- 

 sula, Berberis, Erica, Passerina, Thalictrum, Cocculus, 

 Equisetum, Hypnum, Fissidens, Cystoseira, Gyalecta, and 

 Endocarpon. Of insects, the genera Harpalus, Lygeeus, 

 Pyralis, and Tinea have specific names after Thunberg. 



Thunberg was an amiable kind man, and highly 

 esteemed by his friends and pupils. The great additions 

 that he has made to our knowledge of the plants of the 

 world, as well as their uses to man, place him amongst 

 the most distinguished botanists of the last and present 

 century. He was not great as a vegetable physiologist, 

 nor did he attempt anything more in systematic botany 

 than a slight emendation of the system of Linnaeus. In 

 this he was followed by very few ; and those who at the 

 present day have recourse to that system for arranging 

 plants, generally adopt the primitive plan of Linnaeus. 

 As a traveller, Thunberg is remarkable for the accuracy 

 of his observations on the manners, habits, and domestic 

 economy of the people that he visited. 



(BiscnotT, Lehrbuch dcr Botanik ; Resa uti Europa, &e. ; 

 Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Handlingar, 1829.) 



THUNDER is an explosion accompanied by a loud 

 noise, which is heard after a discharge of lightning from 

 the clouds. The character of the noise is variable : it 

 sometimes resembles that which is produced when a single 

 piece of ordnance is fired; at other'times it is a rolling 

 sound like the successive discharges of several great 

 guns ; and occasionally it may be compared to a series of 

 sharp reports from a fire of musketry. 



The identity of lightning with the electric fluid is now 

 well known [LIGHTNING], but the physical cause of the 

 detonation which accompanies the flash is still the subject 

 of conjecture ; in general it is considered that lightning, 

 by its heat, creates a partial vacuum in the atmosphere. 

 and that the sudden rushing of air into the void space- 

 produces the sound; but various reasons have been as- 

 signed for its prolongation. It was formerly supposed that. 

 the rolling noise is merely the result of several echos 

 caused by the sound being reflected from mountains, 

 woods, buildings, or clouds, or from the latter alone when, 

 a thunder-storm takes place over the ocean : this opinion 

 seems to have been founded upon the fact that the report 

 of a fire-arm discharged in a mountainous tract is prolonged 

 by the echos during at least half a minute, which is about 

 the time that the rolling of thunder continues. But though 

 the reflections of sound are, very probably, in part, or at 

 times, the causes of the prolongation of the report arising 

 from the explosion, yet it must be admitted that these will 

 not always afford a satisfactory explanation of the pheno- 

 mena. It may hapnen, for example, that, when the sky is 



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