Johann Ernst Hebenstreit

Who was Johann Ernst Hebenstreit?

Johann Ernst Hebenstreit was a German physician and naturalist born in Neustadt an der Orla.

He was a student at the University of Leipzig, where in 1728 he earned his philosophy degree, and one year later obtaining his medical doctorate with the dissertation "De viribus minerarum et Mineralium medicamentosis". In 1731 he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

In 1731 he was appointed by Augustus II to head an expedition to Africa to collect natural history specimens and to procure wild animals for the royal menagerie. After Augustus' death in 1733, the mission was discontinued, with Hebenstreit returning to Leipzig as a professor of medicine. In 1737 he became a professor of physiology, anatomy and surgery, and in 1748 was appointed dean of the medical faculty. During turmoil surrounding the May Uprising in Dresden, specimens collected from the African expedition were lost.