Johann Julius Walbaum

Who was Johann Julius Walbaum?

Johann Julius Walbaum was a physician, naturalist and taxonomist. He was the first to describe many previously unknown species from remote parts of the globe, such as the Great Barracuda, the Chum salmon from the Kamchatka River in Siberia, and the curimatá-pacú from the São Francisco River in Brazil. He was also the first to observe gloves as a preventative against infection in medical surgery. In 1758, the gloves he observed were made from the cecum of the sheep, rather than rubber, which had not yet been discovered.

The Naturhistorische Museum in Lübeck, opened in 1893, was based on Walbaum’s extensive scientific collection, which was lost during the Second World War.