About Hinrich Lichtenstein
Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein (10 January 1780 – 2 September 1857) was a German medical doctor, explorer, botanist and zoologist. He explored parts of southern Africa and collected natural history specimens extensively and many new species were described from his collections by European scientists. == Biography == Born in Hamburg, Lichtenstein was the son of Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein, head of the Johanneum. His father had an interest in eastern languages and built up an extensive library. He took an interest in natural history and geography from an early age, and came into contact with Count Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg in 1797 and began to help examine the Count's extensive collections of insects and birds. He then went to study medicine at Jena and Helmstedt and qualified as a doctor on 26 April 1802. He then chose to travel and found work when the Dutch governor of the Cape Colony, General Jan Willem Janssens hired Lichtenstein as a family physician and tutor for his son. Lichtenstein prepared himself by reading the accounts of travellers like Peter Kolbe, Anders Sparrman, Carl Peter Thunberg, François Le Vaillant and John Barrow. He also met the collectors Johann Hellwig and Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger who gave him an overview of the gaps in the knowledge of the flora and fauna of the African region and on methods for collecting specimens. He reached Cape Town on 23 December 1802 and from that point he traveled widely around southern Africa.
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