Special Issue 1 - Christian Gottfried Ehrenburg (1795-1876) The man and his legacy

An edited volume arising from papers presented during a one-day symposium at the Linnean Society on 14^th December 1995.

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876) is probably one of the most important of the early micropalaeontologists.

During his early career, Ehrenberg was a much-respected scientist. Many of his contemporaries, like Charles Darwin, T.H. Huxley, Benjamin Silliman, J.D. Dana and J.W. Bailey, regarded him as the foremost expert in the identification of ‘Infusoria’.

The purpose of holding a meeting centred around the life and works of Ehrenberg was threefold. First, 1995 was the bicentenary of his birth and we were unaware of any major celebration of his life. Second, Ehrenberg has received scant attention in the history of science. Third, and perhaps most importantly, Ehrenberg left a large legacy to future science in the form of a massive collection of specimens.

Edited by David M. Williams & Robert Huxley

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876): the man and his legacy. An introduction – D.M. Williams & R. Huxley. Diatoms – biogeography – systematics

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg: The man and his contribution to botanical science – R. Jahn. Botany – algae – fungi – spermatophyta – nomenclature

The Ehrenberg Collection and its curation – D. Lazarus. Type – material – diatoms – radiolaria – microfossils – Berlin Museum

Unravelling Ehrenberg’s names: applying the past to the present – D.M. Williams, R. Huxley, & R. Ross. Diatoms – fossils – diogeography – taxonomic literature.

Ehrenbergiana: problems of elusive types and old collections, with special reference to diatoms – D.G. Mann. Bacillariophyta – composite types – nomenclature – taxonomy – typification.

Special Issue No. 1 of The Linnean Newsletter and Proceedings of The Linnean Society of London