Christen Smith | |
|---|---|
 Christen Smith portrait, ca 1810 | |
| Born | 17 October 1785 |
| Died | 22 September 1816(1816-09-22) (aged 30) Tall Trees, at theCongo River |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany,geology |
| Institutions | Natural History Museum, Oslo |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | C.Sm. |
Christen Smith (17 October 1785 – 22 September 1816) also known asChristian Smith orChretien Smith, was an early 19th-century Norwegianphysician,economist andnaturalist, particularlybotanist. He died, only 30 years old during a dramatic expedition to theCongo River in 1816, leaving a wealth of botanical material.
Smith was born atSkoger in what is nowDrammen, Norway. He studiedmedicine andbotany at theUniversity of Copenhagen under ProfessorMartin Vahl. Together withJens Wilken Hornemann, he traveled through large parts ofNorway and carried out botanical investigations, collecting plants to be included in the plate workFlora Danica.Joakim Frederik Schouw andMorten Wormskjold were in the company for part of the trip. The party climbed several mountain tops inJotunheimen, for some of which it was the first recorded ascent, e.g.Bitihorn 1811 andHårteigen 1812.[1]
In 1808, Smith graduated and started to practice medicine in Norway. In 1814, he was appointed professor of national economy andbotany at the newly foundedRoyal Frederick University inChristiania (now Oslo). However, he never took up the position as he embarked upon travels abroad to establish contacts and keep abreast of the development of botanical gardens in Europe. His first journey took him to Scotland and from there toLondon, where he met thePrussian geologistLeopold von Buch. Buch planned to visit the volcanicCanary Islands andMadeira, and Smith eagerly seized the opportunity to participate in an expedition with the experienced scientist.[2] In 1815, the two embarked on the trip. They returned to Portsmouth on 8 December that year,[3] Smith bringing 600 species of plants, of which about 50 were new to science.[1] The best known of Smith's new species is probablyPinus canariensis, the Canary Island pine.[4]
Having learned geology from Buch in addition to discovering new plant species, Smith was approached by theRoyal Society of London and asked to participate in a scientific expedition under CaptainJames Hingston Tuckey to determine whether theCongo River had any connection to the Niger basins of western and central Africa. Smith was to function as the expedition'sbotanist andgeologist. He had as assistantDavid Lockhart, who was to survive the journey.[5]
The Congo expedition began in February 1816 and went badly from the start. The original plan was to sail up the river using the expedition ship "HMS Congo", which had originally been constructed as asteamboat, a technology that was still in its infancy. While the ship was eventually rigged for conventional sails, the heavy construction made it sit deep in the water. The accompanying lighter vessel "Dorothy" was also used but was stopped by rapids 160 km inland. The expedition continued on foot up along the Congo through mosquito-infested swamps.[3] The expedition advanced 450 kilometres up the river, but lack of food, hostile natives and ravaging tropical fevers forced the expedition to turn back without having found the sought connection. On the way downriver, Smith caught a tropical fever (probablyyellow fever) and died, less than a month shy of his 31st birthday. In all, 18 of the 56 members of the expedition perished, including all the scientists and the captain, who died after returning to the ship.[3] The ill-fated expedition was part of the inspiration forJoseph Conrad'sHeart of Darkness, written almost a century later.[1]
Before succumbing to fever, Captain Tuckey made sure that Smith's diary and plant specimens were shipped to London. His collection from the trip consisted of 620 species, of which 250 proved to be new to science but had to be published by other botanists. Several of the texts he left behind were later published by his friendMartin Richard Flor.[1][2]
Many species of plants have been named after Smith, e.g.,Aeonium smithii (Sims) Webb & Berthel. (1840) fromTenerife and the genusChristiana (Malvaceae:Brownlowioideae), discovered inCongo by Smith and described byAugustin Pyramus de Candolle in hisProdromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis (1824).[4]
Also a species of snake,Grayia smythii, is named in honor of Christen Smith.[6]
Media related toChristen Smith at Wikimedia Commons