331 



CHRISTIAN HEE HWASS : 1731-1803. 



Note by C. A. GOSCH, Attache to the Danish Embassy in London, 

 communicated by B. B. WOODWARD, F.L.S., &c. 



(Read before the Society, December 13, 1905). 



Details concerning the personality of the author of the article on the 

 genus Conus in the " Encyclopedic Me'thodique," in 1792, have long 

 been wanting. Mistaking the name for a Dutch one, I sought in 

 vain. At length a valuable clue was disinterred from a paper by 

 Dr. W. H. DalP " On the genus Aniptillaria" (antca, p. 50). Thus 

 directed to the right, Danisl;i, source the task became simpler, and 

 through the great kindness of my friend Mr. C. A, Gosch, Attache to 

 the Danish Embassy in London, correct details as to the life of 

 Hwass are now set forth. What the source of Dr. Dall's infonnation 

 may have been I am unaware, but it is evident that the personal 

 histories of father and son have become mixed. B.B.W. 



Mr. GoschV note is as follows : — 



Christian Hee Hwass^ was born in 1731. His father was a 

 clergyman, and he qualified himself for the church but never took 

 orders. Eor some years he was tutor to the sons of a very 

 wealthy merchant of the name of Ancher, and with the eldest 

 son he travelled for two or three years in Sweden, Germany, Italy, 

 Erance and England. Hwass was a man of varied interests, much 

 refinement and taste, and in 1772 he was made Manager of the Royal 

 Theatre at Copenhagen, which is a state institution, a post which he 

 retained until 1778, when he resigned. Meanwhile he had, through 

 his wife, come into possession of a not inconsiderable fortune, 

 rendering him independent. 



In 1780 he left Denmark and settled in Paris. His object in so 

 doing was twofold : first, to procure the best possible education for 

 his son of whom he had great expectations; secondly, to carry out a 

 literary project which had occupied him for several years, viz., a 



1 The data given by Dall, above referred to, were derived from manuscript notes by the 

 late Dr. O. A. L. Mtirch, which the former had no opportunity of verifying, and, as coming from 

 a distinguished Danish naturalist, naturally accepted as correct. Bruguiere (''Encycl M6th.," 

 Vers., vi., p. 598) in prefatory remarks on the article Conus, says : " Le travail que je pr^sente ici 

 sur les Cones ma et^ communique par M. Hwass, Conseiller de Justice du Roi de Dannemarck, 

 qui a bien voulu le diitacher d'un autre plus considerable, actuellement sous presse, qui renferme 

 le catalogue systematique des coquilles pr^cieuses qui compose sa collection." The original 

 drawings for this latter work became the property of Schumacher («£ /??> "Essai," p. 205, 1817); 

 also Chemnitz, "Conch. Cab.," xi., p. 211, and Bosc, " Hist. Nat. des Coq.," v., p. 108, 1802, for 

 further notes on Hwass. Chemnitz calls him " Herr Justizrath Hwass," and the term " Consul" 

 used in this connection by the translator employed by Dall to put Morch's Danish notes into 

 English, is probably a lapsus for " Councillor." 



2 Mr. Gosch is author of that very useful reference book, " Udsigt over Danmarks 

 Zoologi.ske Literatur," in 4 vols., 8vo. Kjobenhavn, 1870-78. 



3 So he signed himself, but ordinarily the name is spelt " Hvas." I believe there is a 

 branch of that stock in Norway who call themselves " Hwas." 



