Digitale Ausgabe

Don Jose Celestino Mutis, director of the Botanical Expedition of the kingdom of NewGranada,* and astronomer royal at Santa Féde Bogota, was born in Cadiz in 1732, of afamily in easy circumstances. He is bestknown in Europe through his vast knowledgeand researches in Botany. Linnæus termshim, “phytologorum Americanorum princeps;”but the services he has rendered to all thebranches of natural history, — the discovery ofthe quinquinas in regions where their existencewas unknown, the beneficent influence whichhe has exercised upon the civilisation and en-lightenment of the Spanish colonies, assign tohim a distinguished station amongst the menwho have illustrated the new world. After having applied himself with un-common ardour to the study of mathe-matics, Mutis was forced by his parents todirect his attention to practical medicine, andpursued his courses at the college of San Fer-nando de Cadiz; he took his degrees at Se-villa, and, in 1757, was named substitute of achair of anatomy at Madrid. During a sojournof three years in the Spanish capital, he tookmore delight in botanical excursions than invisiting the hospitals, and he had the rare goodfortune of acquiring the acquaintance of thecelebrated naturalist of Upsal, who was desirousof adding to his herbal collection the plants ofthe Peninsula. This correspondence of Mutiswith Linnæus became of still greater import-ance to science, inasmuch as the viceroy, DonPedro Mexia de la Cerda engaged the formerto accompany him to America in the qualityof physician, 1750. Our young botanist hadbeen named by the ministry amongst the per-sons selected to terminate their studies atParis, Leyden and Bologna, but he did nothesitate a moment in sacrificing the prospectof visiting the most renowned universities ofEurope, to the advantages and attractions of adistant expedition. On his arrival at New Granada, he wasvividly struck with the natural richness of acountry where different climates are encoun-tered in progressive succession, one above an-other, with the regularity of a flight of stairs.After remaining for a long period in Cartha-gena, Turbaco, and Honda, (chief port of theriver Magdelena), Mutis accompanied theviceroy on his journey to Bogota, situate onthe table land † 1365 toises above the level ofthe sea, and possessing a temperature similarto that of Bordeaux. Between Honda andBogota he passed through forests containingprecious species of the cinchona (quinquina),but until the year 1772, he had not given hisattention to this useful production. Named Professor of Mathematics in the“Colegio Mayor de nuestra Senora del Rosario,”he circulated at Sante Fé de Bogota, the firstnotions of the true planetary system. TheDominican Friars did not behold without in-quietude that “the Heresies of Copernicus,”already professed by Bouguer, Godin, and LaCondamine at Quito, should penetrate intoNew Granada; but the viceroy protected Mu-tis against the monks, who would have theearth remain immoveable; they, however,slowly accustomed themselves to what they yetcall the “hypotheses of the new philosophy.” Mutis, anxious to examine the plants of thewarm region, and to visit the argentiferousmines of New Granada, quitted the table land |Spaltenumbruch| of Bogota. He made a long stay, first atLa Montuosa, between Giron and Pamplona,and subsequently (from 1777 to 1782) at Realdel Zapo, and Mariquita, situate at the foot ofthe Quindio Andes and Paramo of Herveo. Itwas at La Montuosa that he commenced the“Grand Flore de la Nouvelle Grenade,” a bo-tanical work at which he laboured withoutintermission for the space of forty years, andwhich we have reason to fear, never will bepublished in a complete form. Linnæus, in hissupplement of Species Plantarum, and in hisMantissa, has named a great number of rarespecies which Mutis remitted him from LaMontuosa, but by a strange, and for the geo-graphy of plants, most unfortunate error, hehas noted them as coming from Mexico. The trifling sums which our traveller earnedby the practice of his art, sometimes at themines, he expended in the formation of a bo-tanic library, in the purchase of barometers,geodætical instruments, and glasses to observethe occultations of Jupiter’s satellites. He en-gaged artists to draw the most curious plants, andwho painted in oil the indigenous animals almostall as large as life. The author of this articlehas seen a part of this collection, formed beforeMutis had become the object of his sovereign’smunificence. It was also during his sojourn atReal del Zapo (1786), that he made the im-portant discovery of a quicksilver mine nearIbague Viejo, between the Nevada de Tolimaand the river Saldane. So much useful exer-tion met at length with honourable encourage-ment. The court of Madrid, at the instanceof the viceroy, Archbishop Don Antonio Ca-ballero y Gongora, resolved (1782) upon found-ing, first at Mariquita, and afterwards (1790)at Santa Fé de Bogota, a grand establish-ment of natural history, under the nameof “Expedicion Real Botanica,” at the head ofwhich was placed Don Celestino Mutis. Animmense edifice of the capital was destined forthis establishment. He included the herbaria,school of design, and library, one of the richestand most beautiful ever consecrated to such apurpose even in Europe, in one sole branch ofnatural history. Mutis had embraced the ec-clesiastical state since the year 1772, and wasnamed canon of the metropolitan church ofSanta Fé and Confessor to a convent of nuns.Zealous in the discharge of the duties he hadimposed upon himself, he found no leisure toextend his excursions beyond the vicinity of thecapital, but he despatched the artists attachedto the “Expedicion,” to the warm and tem-perate regions which surround the table landof Bogota. Some Spanish artists, whose ta-lents had been perfected by the councils ofMutis, formed, in a very few years, a school ofyoung painters. The Indians, coloured, andindigenous natives of mixed blood, shewed anextraordinary disposition to imitate the formand colour of the plants. The drawings of the Flore de Bogota were executed on the largestsized paper; they chose the branches whichwere most laden with flowers; the analysis oranatomy of the fructified parts was subjoined atthe foot of the drawing—generally, each plantwas represented on three or four large sheets incolours and in black at the same time. Thecolours were extracted partly from indigenouscolouring matter unknown in Europe. Neverwas a collection of drawings executed withgreater splendour, nor, it may be said, on alarger scale. Mutis had taken for his modelthe most admired botanical works of his time,those of Jacquin, of L’Heritier, and the AbbéCavanilles. The aspect of the vegetation andphysiognomy of the plants, were pourtrayedwith astonishing fidelity. Modern botanistswho study the affinity of vegetables accordingto the insertion and adherence of the organs

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* Now the republic.† Of the Andes.|220| |Spaltenumbruch| would have wished for a more detailed analysisof the fruit and seed. When MM. de Hum-boldt and Bonpland were at Bogota in 1801,and enjoyed the noble hospitality of Mutis, thelatter estimated the number of drawings alreadyfinished at 2000, amongst which 43 species ofthe passiflora and 123 species of orchideous plants, deserved particular admiration. Thosetravellers were the more surprised at the rich-ness of Mutis’s botanic collections (formed byhimself and his estimable pupils MM. Valen-zuela, Zea, Caldas, and his chief painters MM.Rizo and Mathis), as the most fertile countriesof New Granada, the plains of Tolu and SanBenito Abad, the Andes of Quindio, the pro-vinces of Santa Martha, Antioquia, and Choco,remained yet unexplored by any botanist. Thelarger the mass of materials gathered by thisindefatigable savant grew, the greater the diffi-culties he encountered to publish the fruits ofhis labours. He had copies taken of the draw-ings in his Flore de Bogota, with the view ofsending one to Spain, and of preserving the restat Santa Fé. But how could it be hoped thescientific world should enjoy this immensework, when the Flora Peruviana et Chilensis of Ruiz and Pavon, notwithstanding the pecu-niary succour of the Government and Colonies,hardly advanced at an extremely slow pace?Mutis was too much attached to the establish-ments he had founded—he was too fond ofa country which had become his second home,to undertake, at the age of 76, a return toEurope. He continued, till his death, to accumulatematerials for his work without deciding on themode of its publication. Accustomed to over-come apparently insurmountable obstacles, hedwelt with pleasure on the idea of establishingsome day a press in his house, and of instruct-ing his young indigenous pupils, who hadlearned to paint so successfully, in the art ofengraving. Notwithstanding his advancedage, he undertook, in 1802, the constructionof an observatory in the centre of his garden.It is an octagon tower, 72 feet in height, whichcontained, in 1808, a gnomon of 37 feet, aquarter circle by Sisons, Graham’s pendulumwhich La Condamine had left at Quito, twochronometers by Emery, and a few of Dollond’stelescopes. Mutis had the good fortune not to witnessthe bloody revolutions which have devastatedthose lovely countries: he was overtaken bydeath 11th September, 1808, at a period whenhe was in the enjoyment of all the happinessthat can be derived from the esteem of honestmen, from literary glory, and from the cer-tainty of having largely contributed to an im-proved social state in the New World, by hisinstruction, example, and the practice of everyvirtue. We have given a brief sketch of the life ofMutis; we shall proceed to a summary men-tion of his labours, which embrace nearly allthe branches of natural science. Nothing remains of him but a few disser-tations, printed in the Memoirs of the RoyalAcademy of Stockholm, for the year 1769, andin an excellent journal published at Santa Féin 1794, under the title of Papel Periodico;but Linnæus’s Supplement— the works of theAbbé Cavanilles, and of M. de Humboldt—the Seminario del Nuevo Reyno de Granada, editedby M. Caldas, in 1808-9, have published apart of his observations. We are ignorant ofthe fate of the manuscripts which this cele-brated man left to the care of his friends andnearest relatives. M. Caldas, the director ofthe observatory of Santa Fé,—the favouritepupil of Mutis, Don Salvader Rizo, chiefpainter to the Botanic Expedition, and the |Spaltenumbruch| greater part of the inhabitants distinguishedfor their talents and acquirements, were allput to death* during the unhappy reaction ofthe metropolis. The precious collection ofpaintings was sent to Spain, where had beenpreviously remitted the inedited matter of the Flore du Perou et du Mexique. We hope thatwhen political agitation shall cease in thePeninsula, and in the colonies, the laboursof Mutis may not remain consigned to oblivion,like those of Sesse and of Mocino. It was the communications which Mutis hadmade to Linnæus that gave him celebrity inEurope, long before the works he was pre-paring were known to exist. Most of thegenera, alstonia, vallea, barnadesia, escallonia,manettia, acæna, brathys, myroxylon, befaria,telipogon, brabejum, gomozia, and many others,published in Linnæus’s supplement, are dueto the sagacity of the botanist of Santa Fé. Speaking of the genus mutisia, Linnæusadds, nomen immortale quod nulla ætas unquamdelebit. It was Mutis who first made known thetrue characters of the genus cinchona. Asthis last has become of great importance, weshall endeavour to call to mind the opinionsheretofore entertained respecting the quinqui-nas of the New World. La Condamine andJoseph de Jussieu had examined, in 1738, thetrees of the forests of Loxa, which yield thefebrifuge quina, or bark. The first-namedhas published a description and drawing ofthe Peruvian quinquina in the Memoires del’Academie, the same species made known byMM. Humboldt and Bonpland, under the name cinckona condaminea, and which botanists havelong confounded with many other kinds, underthe vague denomination of cinchona officinalis. This cinchona condaminea, also called casca-rilla fina de Loxa,*† de Caxanuma, and de Uritu-zinga, is the species most rare, most precious,and without doubt the kind originally em-ployed. There are but 100 quintals exportedannually from Guayaquil, a port of the SouthSea. *‡ The whole exportation of the differentspecies of quina from America is annually14,000 quintals. Linnæus had formed, since1742, his genus cinchona, a name derived froma vice-queen of Peru. He could only havefounded the genus on the imperfect descrip-tion of La Condamine. In 1753, an intendantof the mint of Bogota (Don Miguel de San-testevan), visited the forests of Loxa, and dis-covered on his route, between Popayan andQuito, trees of quinquina in many quarters,especially near the village of Guanacas and theSitio de los Corrales. He sent samples ofcinchona to Mutis, and it was upon those sam-ples that the latter made the first exact descrip-tion of the genus. He lost no time in trans-mitting to Linnæus the flower and fruit of theyellow quinquina (cinchona cordifolia,) butthe great naturalist of Upsal, on publishingthe observations of Mutis, (Syst. Nat. ed. 12,page 164,) confounded the yellow quinquinawith that which La Condamine had described.Up to that time, Europe only received thefebrifuge bark by the ports of the South Sea.The tree which furnishes this precious pro- |Spaltenumbruch| duction was not yet known north of the paral-lel of 2½° lat. boreal. In 1772, Mutis dis-covered the quina within 6 leagues of SantaFé de Bogota, in the woods of Tena. Thisimportant discovery was quickly followed,1773, by another of the same plant on theroute from Honda to Villeta, and at the Mesade Chinga. We have entered into some de-tails on this head, because the quinquina ofNew Granada, exported by Carthagena, andconsequently by a port of the Caribbean Sea,nearer to Europe, has had the most beneficialinfluence on colonial industry, and on thediminution of the price of febrifuge bark inthe markets of the old world. Mutis wasright when he attached great importance tothis discovery, for which he was never recom-pensed by his government. An inhabitant ofPanama, Don Jose Lopez Ruiz, who himselfacknowledges, in Informes al Rey., never tohave known the quinquinas of Honda until1774, passed a long time for the original dis-coverer of the quinas of Santa Fé. He en-joyed as such a pension of 10,000 francs,until, in 1775, the viceroy of Gongona madeknown to the court the priority of Mutis’srights. About the same period, (1776) DonFrancisco Renjifo found the quinquina in thesouthern hemisphere on the slopes of the Peru-vian Andes of Guanuco. It is now to befound in the whole length of the Cordilleras,at an elevation of from 700 to 1500 toises,upon an extent of above 600 leagues, from LaPaz and Chuquisaca, to the mountains ofSanta Martha and Merida. Mutis has the merit of having been the firstto distinguish the different species of Cinchona,some of which, with downy petals, are muchmore active than others whose surface issmooth. He has proved, that the activespecies, whose properties vary with the organicstructure and form, should not be indiscrimi-nately employed. The Quinologia of Mutis,which is about to be published at Madrid byM. Lagasca, and of which a fragment only hasbeen inserted in the Papel Periodico de SantaFé de Bogota, Feb. 1794, comprises the wholeof his medical and botanical researches. Thatwork describes a preparation of fermentedquinquina, in great esteem at Bogota, Quito,and Lima, under the name of cerveza dequina (beer of quina.) Amongst the useful plants in medicine andcommerce, originally described by Mutis, wemust reckon the psychotria emetica, or ipeca-cuanha, (raisilla) of the river Magdalena, the toluifera, and the myroxylon, which yield thebalm of Tolu and of Peru—the winteria gra-nadensis, near neighbour of the canella alba ofour pharmacopœias, and the alstonia theæfor-mis, which furnishes the tea of Bogota, theinfusion of which cannot be too strongly re-commended to travellers who remain anylength of time exposed to the rain of thetropics. At Mariquita, in a temperate and deliciousclimate, Mutis formed a small plantation ofquinquina, cinnamon, (laurus cinnamomoides,)which abounds in the missions of Andaquies,and of indigenous nutmeg (myristica otova.)The name of this celebrated botanist is alsoattached to a discovery which has greatly in-terested the public mind in America. It wasknown that the Indians and negroes whoworked at the lavaderos (washings) of goldand platinum, in the province of Choco, werepossessed of what they called the secret of aplant, the most powerful antidote against thebite of venemous serpents. Mutis was enabledto discover the mystery, and make the plantknown: it is of the family of the compositæ,and is known in its native country by the name

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* Note by Tr.—By the Spanish general, Morillo,Caldas requested a respite for a few days to re-gulate “papers of interest to the world,”—the sterntyrant refused.† The cascarilla fina of Loxa (orange colouredand primitive), called also by the natives of Loxa, cascarilla de Urituzinga, that is, in the Quichuatongue, bear’s nose, the highland forest in whichit grows, having a profile when viewed from thevallies, somewhat resembling that of a bear.—Tr. ‡ A Port of the Republic of the Equator on thePacific Ocean.|221| |Spaltenumbruch| of vejuco del guaco. * MM. Humboldt andBonpland were the first to represent it,(v. Mikania Guaco, in the Plantæ Æquinoc-tiales, vol. 2, p. 85, pl. 105.) This plant has anauseous odour, which appears to affect theolfactory organs of the vipers. The scent of theguaco mixes itself, no doubt, with the cutane-ous transpiration of man: one is consideredout of danger after a space of time, more orless, when the patient has been curado, thatis, when inoculation of the juice of the guacointo the dermoid system has been effected.Bold experiments made in the house of Mutisby MM. Zea, Vargas, and Mathis, and duringwhich they were seen to handle with impunitythe most venemous vipers, have been describedin the Seminario de Agricultura of Madrid,1798, vol. 4, p. 397. As the guaco has beenfound in several of the warm vallies of theAndes, from Peru down to Carthagena, andon the mountains of Varinas, a great numberof persons owe their recovery to this valuablediscovery of Mutis. It is to be regretted thatthis plant, which has been frequently con-founded with the Ayapana, loses its virtuewhen the leaves and trunk are preserved inalcohol. The guaco is not found everywherethat serpents abound. We know but little of the zoological andphysical labours of Mutis; but we are awarehe studied for a long time the habits of theants and termites, which in America, as inSenegal, construct mounds from five to six feetin height. He had painted a number of themammiferous species, of the birds and fishes ofNew Granada. He has described, accordingto the Linnæan method, in the Memoires del’Academie de Stockholm, of which he was amember, a new species of marten, (viverramapurito.) The manuscripts of Mutis also contained agreat number of valuable observations on the atmospheric currents, which appear much moredistinctly under the tropics than in the tem-perate climates, by the horary variations of thebarometer. This instrument rises and falls, atthe level of the sea as on the highest table land,four times in 24 hours under the torrid zone,with such regularity, that one may tell, towithin a quarter of an hour, the time of day,by the simple inspection of the column ofmercury. It appears that this curious obser-vation, which has so much excited the attentionof scientific men, and the discovery of whichLa Condamine (Voyage à l’Equatcur, p. 50), hasso falsely attributed to Godin, had been alreadymade at Surinam in 1722, (Journal Litterairede la Haye for the year 1722, p. 234.) FatherBondier (1742), employed it at Chandernagor;Godin (1737), at Quito; Thibault de Chanva-lon (1751), at Martinique; Lamanon, in 1786,in the South Sea: Mutis avers having foundthat the moon exercises a sensible influence onthe period and on the extent of the horary va-riations, (Caldas, Seminario de la nuevo Reynode Granada, vol. 1, p. 55 and 361, No. 3.) The man who has displayed such astonish-ing activity during forty-eight years of labourin the New World, was endowed by naturewith a most happy physical constitution. Hewas tall in stature; his features bore the im-print of nobleness; his air was grave, and hismanners easy and polite. His conversationwas as varied as the objects of his studies. Ifhe frequently spoke with warmth, he also lovedto practice that art of listening to which Fon-tenelle attached so much value, and which hefound so rare in his days. Although muchoccupied by a science which requires the most |Spaltenumbruch| attentive study of organization, Mutis neverlost sight of the great problems respecting the physique of the universe. He travelled overthe Cordilleras barometer in hand. He deter-mined the medium temperature of those tablelands, which appear, like islets, in the middleof the aerial ocean. He had been struck withthe aspect of the vegetation, which varies ac-cording as we descend towards the vallies, orclimb towards the frozen summits of the Andes.Every question connected with the geographyof plants was to him of the most lively interest,and he sought to delineate the limits more orless, betwixt which, on the mountain declivi-ties, grow the various species of Cinchona. This taste for the physical sciences—this ac-tive curiosity directed to the development ofthe phenomena of organisation and meteorology,maintained the empire of his mind to the lastmoment of his life. Nothing proves better thesuperiority of his talent, than the enthusiasmwith which he received the intelligence of anyimportant discovery. He had not seen a che-mical laboratory since 1760; but the perusalof the works of Lavoisier, of Guyton de Mor-veau and Fourcroy, had offered him the mostvaluable knowledge of the state of modernchemistry. Mutis encouraged with great in-terest the young people who manifested a dis-position for study; he furnished them withbooks and instruments, and sent many to travelat his proper cost After having spoken of his liberality, and ofthe daily sacrifices he made to science, it isunnecessary to extol his disinterestedness. Heenjoyed all his life the confidence of the vice-roys, who exercised unlimited sway in thosecountries; but he only employed his credit forthe benefit of science—to make known modestmerit, or to plead with courage the cause ofthe unfortunate. His only ambition was toaid in the triumph of justice and of truth; hefulfilled with zeal, it may be said with auste-rity, the duties he had imposed on himself,in embracing the ecclesiastical profession,but his piety sought not the eclat of renown—it was mild and sincere, as it ever is, whenfound combined with feeling and elevation ofcharacter.