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Fritz Müller

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For other uses, seeFritz Müller (disambiguation).
Fritz Müller
Born31 March 1822
Windischholzhausen,Erfurt,
Thuringia,Kingdom of Prussia
Died21 May 1897 (aged 75)
Blumenau,Brazil
NationalityGerman(1822–1856)
Brazilian(1856–1897)
Alma materUniversity of Berlin
Known forMüllerian mimicry
Scientific career
FieldsBiology

Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller(German pronunciation:[ˈjoːhanˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈteːodoːɐ̯ˈmʏlɐ];31 March 1822 – 21 May 1897), better known asFritz Müller(Brazilian Portuguese:[ˈfɾitsˈmileʁ]), and also asMüller-Desterro,[1][2]was a German biologist who emigrated to southern Brazil, where he lived in and near the city ofBlumenau,Santa Catarina.There he studied thenatural historyof theAtlantic forestand was an early advocate ofDarwinism.Müllerian mimicryis named after him.[3]

Life

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Müller was born in the village of Windischholzhausen, nearErfurtinThuringia,Germany, the son of a minister. Müller had what would be seen today as a normal scientific education at the universities ofBerlin(earning a BSc in Botany) andGreifswald,culminating in aPhDin Biology. He subsequently decided to study medicine. As a medical student, he began to question religion and in 1846 became anatheist,joining theFree Congregationsand supportingfree love.Despite completing the course, he did not graduate because he refused to swear the graduation oath, which contained the phrase "so help me God and his sacred Gospel".

Müller was disappointed by the failure of thePrussian Revolutionin 1848, fearing implications for his life and career. As a result, he emigrated to Brazil in 1852, with his brother August and their wives, to joinHermann Blumenau'snew colonyin the State of Santa Catarina. In Brazil, Müller became a farmer, doctor, teacher and biologist. During this time, he studied the natural history of thesub-tropicalAtlantic forest,around theItajaí Rivervalley.

Müller gained an official teaching post, and spent a decade teaching mathematics at a college inDesterro.[4][5]The college was taken over by theJesuits,and Müller (though retaining his salary) returned to the Itajaí River valley. He negotiated a number of botanical activities with the provincial government and spent the next nine years doing botanical research and advising farmers. In 1876 he was appointed as a Travelling Naturalist to theNational Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

In his retirement years, Müller received many offers of support and offers of financial help. He was one of many naturalists to visit and work in South America during the nineteenth century, but was the only one to settle in Brazil for the rest of his life. A statue of Müller was erected in Blumenau in 1929.[6]

Biology

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During his life Müller published over 70 papers in English and Portuguese, and also in German-language periodicals. The topics covered a range of natural topics fromentomology,marine biologyandbotany.

Müllerian mimicryis named after and discovered by him. This phenomenon concerns the resemblance between two or more unpalatable species which are protected frompredatorscapable oflearning.The protection is often a noxious chemical, perhaps gained from thelarvaeating a particular plant; or it may be a sting or other defence. It is an advantage for such potentialpreyto advertise their status in a way clearly perceptible to their predators; this is calledaposematicorwarning coloration.The principle is of wide application, but in Müller's case the prey werebutterflies,and the predators usuallybirdsorreptiles.[7]

In Müllerian mimicry, an advantage is gained when unpalatable species resemble each other, especially when the predator has a good memory for colour (as birds, for instance, do have). Thus one trial may work to dissuade a bird from several species of butterfly which all have the same warning coloration. Müller and other naturalists believed that such systems of mimicry could only come about by means ofnatural selection,and all of them wrote about it.

Another of Müller's discoveries were theMüllerian bodiesin the flowering plant genusCecropia.Müller was able to show that the small bodies at the petiole-bases of Cecropia are food bodies and are used by protecting ants of the genusAztecawhich inhabit the hollow stems of these fast growing trees.

Much of Müller's botany was stimulated by the series of botanical works published by Darwin. After Darwin'sFertilisation of Orchids(1862) he spent years of work on orchids, sending observations to his brother Hermann and to Darwin. Darwin used some of this work in his second edition of 1877, and Hermann later became famous for his work on pollination. OnClimbing plants(1867) Müller lent a letter to Darwin listing 40 genera of climbing plants classified by their method of climbing. The next few months saw more observations, which Darwin had translated and published as Müller's first paper in English.[8]As a botanist, Fritz Müller is denoted by theauthor abbreviationF.J.Müll.whencitingabotanical name.[9]

Müller and Darwin

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Müller became a strong supporter ofCharles Darwin.He wroteFür Darwinin 1864, arguing that Darwin'stheory of evolutionbynatural selectionwas correct, and that Braziliancrustaceansand their larvae could be affected by adaptations at any growth stage. Müller sent a copy to Darwin, who had the book privately translated for his own use.[10]A later translation into English, with some additional material by Müller, was made byW.S. Dallas,and was published asFacts and Arguments for Darwinin 1869.

Extensive correspondence exists between Müller and Darwin, and Müller also corresponded with his brotherHermann Müller,Alexander Agassiz,Ernst KrauseandErnst Haeckel.

References

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  1. ^Gilman, D. C.;Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905)."Müller, Johann Friedrich Theodor".New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  2. ^Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920)."Müller, Johann Friedrich Theodor".Encyclopedia Americana.
  3. ^West, David A. 2003.Fritz Müller: a naturalist in Brazil.Blacksburg: Pocahontas Press.
  4. ^Desterro has been replaced by the modern city ofFlorianópolis(= Floripa), which is on the mainland as well as the Island of Santa Catarina. The island is about 120 miles SE ofSão Paulo,about 330 miles SE ofRio de Janeiro,and about 300 miles north ofMontevideoon theRio de la Plata.
  5. ^Henry Batesnotes the "splendid climate of Desterro" and its links with German settlements. Bates H.W. 1882.Central America, the West Indies and South America.2nd revised ed., Stanford, London. p 432, 436 and map of the Seaports of Brazil opp p427.
  6. ^Bates H.W. 1882.Central America, the West Indies and South America.2nd revised ed., Stanford, London. p408 et seq
  7. ^Müller, Fritz 1878. Über die Vortheile der Mimicry bei Schmetterlingen.Zoologischer Anzeiger1,54–55. Müller F. 1879.ItunaandThyridia:a remarkable case of mimicry in butterflies. (transl. R. Meldola)Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London20-29.
  8. ^Müller, Fritz 1867. Notes on some of the climbing-plants near Desterro in South Brazil.J Linn Soc (Botany)9,344-9 (read 7 Dec 1865).
  9. ^Brummitt, R. K.; C. E. Powell (1992).Authors of Plant Names.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.ISBN1-84246-085-4.
  10. ^see the notes on the letter from Darwin to Müller athttp://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-4881

Biographies

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  • Alfred Möller, 1920.Fritz Müller. Werke, Briefe und Leben[virtually the sole biographical source for this significant biologist]
  • Cezar Zillig, 1997.Dear Mr. Darwin.A intimidade da correspondência entre Fritz Müller e Charles Darwin. Sky/Anima Comunicação e Design, São Paulo, 241 pp. [letters between Müller and Darwin, with very interesting comments on the life of Fritz Müller. In Portuguese]
  • Andreas Daum,Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914.Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998,ISBN3-486-56337-8,[contains a short biography and much information on the contemporary context, including Darwinism in Germany, Haeckel, Krause, etc.]
  • David A. West, 2003.Fritz Müller: A Naturalist in Brazil.Blacksburg: Pocahontas Press.ISBN0-936015-92-6[modern, and most welcome, though the biographical information rests almost entirely on Möller's book. West adds excellent summaries and assessments of Müller's biological work]
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