Johann Caspar Scheuchzer

Johann Caspar Scheuchzer, (26 January 1702 – 21 April 1729; also known as Hans Kaspar and Jean Gaspard) was a Swiss naturalist, physician and writer on the history and culture of Japan

Life
Scheuchzer was born in Zürich. The third child of the Zürich scholar Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672–1733) and his wife Susanna, he grew up in a stimulating environment. His father worked as a physicist, psychiatrist, psychiatrist, naturalist and a writer on the Alps. <!---

wuchs in einer stimulierenden Umgebung auf. Sein Vater genoss als Physikotheologe, Volksaufklärer, Polyhistor, Naturforscher und Begründer der Wissenschaft von den Alpen weithin ein großes Ansehen. Und ganz in dessen Geist wählte Johann Caspar 1722 die geologische Sintfluttheorie (Diluvianismus) zum Thema seiner Inauguraldissertation. Danach ging er nach London. Hier kam er zunächst bei dem Arzt und Naturforscher John Woodward (1665–1728) unter, mit dem er sich jedoch bald überwarf. Schließlich nahm ihn der Leibarzt des englischen Königs und Gelehrte Hans Sloane auf und beauftragte ihn mit der Katalogisierung seiner immensen Bibliothek. Dank Sloanes Vermittlung wurde er 1728 in die Royal Society aufgenommen, wo er sich als "Assistant Secretary for Foreign Correspondence" um Forschungen im Ausland kümmerte, über die er in den Philosophical Transactions Bericht erstattete. Auch Scheuchzers medizinische Studien, die er − wiederum mit Sloanes tatkräftiger Unterstützung – betrieb, machten gute Fortschritte und wurden in Cambridge durch die Verleihung eines Doktortitels gewürdigt. Bleibende Verdienste erwarb sich Scheuchzer auf diesem Feld besonders durch die Fortsetzung der Studien des Arztes James Jurin (1684–1750) zur Zahl der Todesfälle von geimpften und nicht geimpften Pockenpatienten. Scheuchzers Schrift An account of the success of inoculating the small-pox in Great Britain for the years 1727 and 1728 trug viel zum Erfolg der von Jurin angefangenen quantifizierenden Methode bei. --->Scheuchzer translated and edited the manuscript "Today's Japan" by Engelbert Kaempfer, which had been acquired by Hans Sloane with the rest of Kaempfer's collection – this translation was published in two folio volumes in 1727, with a title page reading:

"The History of Japan: giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire; of its temples, palaces, castles and other buildings; Of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; Of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; Of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese. Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam. Written in High-Dutch by Engelbertus Kaempfer, M.D. Physician to the Dutch Embassy to the Emperor’s Court; and translated from his Original Manuscript, never before printed, by J. G. Scheuchzer, F.R.S. and a Member of the College of Physicians, London. With the Life of the Author, and an Introduction. Illustrated with many Copper Plates. London: Printed for the Translator, MDCCXXVII."

This work may have exacerbated Scheuchzer's illness and his exact cause of death is unknown. He died in spring 1729 in Sloane's house in London and was buried on 24 April in the churchyard of Chelsea Old Church.

Works

 * Theses de diluvio publico & placido eruditorum examini subjicient Præses Johannes Jacobus Scheuchzerus Med. Doct. Math. Prof. [...] atque Joh. Casparus Scheuchzerus, J.J.F. [...] author et respondens. MDCCXXII [...] Tiguri, Ex Typographeo Bodmeriano.
 * John Gasper Scheuchzer: An account of the success of inoculating the small-pox in Great Britain, for the years 1727 and 1728. With a comparison between the mortality of the natural small-pox, and the miscarriages in that practice; as also some general remarks onits progress and success, since its first introduction. To which are subjoined, I. An account of the success of inoculation in foreign parts. II. A relation of the like method of giving the small-pox, as it is practised in the kingdoms of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algier. London, J. Peele, 1729.