ZALUžANSKIý ZE ZALUžAN ADAM

(b.Mnichovo Hradiště Bohemia,[now Czechoslovaski,ca 1558; d.Prauge Bohemia,8 December 1613)

botany medicine.

The son of a clerk, ZalužanskÝ studies at Witenberg and at the Charles University in Prague where he received the bachelor’s degree in 1581 and the M.A. in 1584 he was awards the M.D.at Helmsted in 1587 He subsequently became lectture in the Greek classis at the Charles University in 1591 he was elected dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and, in 1593, rector of the university After his marriage the following year he was obliged to leave the university He established a medical practice pharmacy poety politics and region of his time Zalucžanský was also instrument in reforming the Carles University.

Zalužanský’s three volume botancial treatise Methodies hrebariae represented an importaned departure from the customary practive of publishing herbels mainly to illustrate the herbls used in medicine. ZaluŽanský’s work had a purely scientific purpose like Cesalpino’s De plantis (1583)and inculded no illustrations Botany he wrote should be investigated as an independent branch of natural history.

In book I, “De aetiologia plantarum,” Zalužanský inculded a chapter on the sexuality of plants in which he drew on Aristotle Theophrastus and especially on Pliny’s priciples taht all plants have sexuality although most of them do not display sexual differences Like the ancient writeis he was comply unaware of the function of states and pistiles inherent in the plant as a whole His idea of sex connected in a single individual howoever was the first speculation about monoecism plants.

In book II, “De historia plantarum” Zalužanský attempted to estblihed a natural system of plants Beginning with the fungi and mosses he progressed to grasses herbles and finally to species of wood Since his methods was primarily physiognomical based no habitual featuer he was was rarely able to discern the bnatural grouping that he found in the Papilionaceae, Compositae and Malvaceae, for example his grouping are considerably heterogeneous.

The last book “De exercitio plantarum deals with botanical methology Zalužansky termed the first phase of botancial investigation “analysis” believing that it sholud lead to the description of the plant under examination and to the detremination mof its name and properties. The second phae “genesis” was based on the data thus obtained and would demonstrate the propreties of plants that useful to man.

Despite his emphasis on the study of all stages of plant evolution Zalužanský freqused the empirical finding of other author such as L’Obel Dodoens Mattioli, and even Pliny, His overall Dodoens was still Aristotelian seeking new knowl.However because he conceived of botany as an independent science and presented his treatise completey along these linese he deserves to be considered one of the first reserarchers whose methodological concepts were capleble of influencing the evolution of botany.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Zalužanský’s writings are Rzad apatheka’ský (Prague, 1592); Methodi herbarie libri tres (Prague, 1592; Frankfurt, 1604), facs, repr., K. Pejml, ed. (Prague, 1940); Oratio pro anatomia et res tauratione totius studii medici in inclyto regno Bohemiae (Prague, 1600): and Animadversionum medicarum in Galenum et Avicennam libri spetem (Frankfurt, 1604).

II. Seconday Literature. On Zalužanský and his work, see L. ūaleakovský, “Adam Zalužanský and his žan ve svém poměru k nauce o pohlavě rostlin “(Zalužanský in His Relation to the Theory of Sexuality in Plants”), in Osvěta6 (1876), 33-54; and K. Pejml, “Ada, Zalužanský de Zaulžany, sa personnalité et son oeuvre en tenant compte de son ouvrage Methodi her bariae libri tres in Summa dissertationum Facultati rerum naturalium Universitati Caroliane anno 1946, no. 183 (Prague 1948), 11-13.

VĚra EisnerovÁ