Fredrik Elfving | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Elfving, 1870s | |
| Born | (1854-12-09)9 December 1854 Ekenäs, Finland |
| Died | 21 June 1942(1942-06-21) (aged 87) Helsinki, Finland |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Alma mater | University of Helsinki |
| Awards | Order of Saint Anna, 3rd Class (1902),Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1919), Commander First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1933) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany,plant physiology |
| Institutions | University of Helsinki |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Elfving[1] |
Fredrik Emil Volmar Elfving (9 December 1854 – 21 June 1942) was aSwedish-speaking Finnishbotanist,plant physiologist, anduniversity administrator. During his university training, he frequently traveled abroad to learn new scientific methods and techniques from other prominent European scientists. Although his earliest publications dealt withphytogeography andphycology (particularly thegreen algae known as thedesmids), his most notable research was inplant physiology. Early in his career, he published seminal work on the flow of water through thestems ofwoody plants, and investigated the phenomenon of transverselygeotropic plant organs. In contrast to his works on plant physiology, his later experiments and views on lichens, which he himself considered his most important work, was far less favourably received.
Elfving became aProfessor of botany at theUniversity of Helsinki in 1892, a position he held until his retirement in 1926. A lively and enthusiastic teacher, Elfving revolutionized the teaching of botany at the university by introducing laboratory courses that emphasized the study of plant physiology, rather thantaxonomy, as had been the tradition. During his time as professor, Elfving wrote many historical papers aboutscientific societies, and biographies ofScandinavian scientists. He wrote the booksTärkeimmät viljelyskasvit ("The Most Important Crops") and theKasvitieteen oppikirja ("Botanical Textbook"), which were widely used astextbooks. Elfving has had severaltaxa named after him.
Elfving was born on 9 December 1854 inEkenäs, Southern Finland, to parents Johan Fredrik and Wendla Elfving. His father, who was originally the son of ablacksmith, rose exceptionally high in the order ofestates (a system ofsocial hierarchy prevalent inChristian Europe), becoming a professor anddistrict doctor [fi]. His mother, Wendla Elfving (née Sucksdorff), belonged to aLoviisa bourgeois family. Fredrik was the youngest of nine children.[2] His eldest sister,Betty Elfving (1837–1923), became an author of popular historical novels in Finland.[3]
Elfving developed an interest in natural history as a child, and became familiar with the localcryptogam flora –mosses,lichens, andalgae. Access to a microscope, given to him by his parents on his 15th birthday, enhanced his interest in this field.[4] Elfving graduated with honours fromTurku High School in 1870.[2]
He intended to enter medical school, but first had to obtain aCandidate of Philosophy degree, with a specialization inbotany. His instructor,Sextus Otto Lindberg, found Elfving to be a talented student, and assisted and encouraged him with his botanical studies.[5] With the support of the university, Elfving stayed inStockholm andUppsala in Sweden for six weeks in the autumn of 1873 to studyphycology.[2]
Elfving obtained his Candidate of Philosophy degree on21 December 1874,[2] at age 20, having performed exceptionally in his final exams. This allowed him to enrol in medical school, but he still continued with his botanical activities.[6] In 1875 he took a trip toRussian Karelia to investigate the plant life around the riverSvir.[4] After a couple of years in medical school, Elfving gave up his plan to become a doctor.[6] Elfving obtained aMaster's degree in philosophy on31 May 1877,[2] and officially began training in botany in 1878 after moving to Germany.[4] Elfving's first scientific publication, titledAnteckningar om vegetationen kring floden Svir ("Notes on the vegetation around the river Svir"), dealt withphytogeography. It was the first reasonably complete compilation of theflora of this region, and was largely modelled uponJohan Petter Norrlin's 1875 workFlora Kareliae Onegensis.[7]
From 1878 to 1879 he completed his studies in Germany, first learningcytology withEduard Strasburger inJena and then inWürzburg withJulius von Sachs.[4] The experiments he performed with Sachs formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation, which he defended successfully in 1879 at the age of 24. It was titledStudier öpver geotropiska växtdelar ("Studies on geotropic plant parts").[5] Elfving became aDoctor of Philosophy on 3 February 1880.[2] In 1881, he was appointeddocent of botany.[8] Also that year, Elfving publishedAnteckningar om finska Desmidieer ("Notes on Finnish Desmids"), in which he enumerated 258 species of theDesmidiales, nine of them new to science. This work helped initiate the study ofphycology in Finland.[6]
Later in 1880, Elfving went abroad to study under the supervision ofHeinrich Anton de Bary inStrasbourg, France.[5] At the invitation of the FinnishNational Board of Medicine [fi], he participated in the preparation of a newpharmacopoeia for Finland in the winter of 1883.[2] In 1886–87, wanting to learn about new methods forculturing bacteria and other micro-organisms, Elfving went toCopenhagen, Denmark to learn these techniques fromfermentation physiologistEmil Christian Hansen and the physician and bacteriologistCarl Julius Salomonsen. He then studied for a few months underGeorge Engelmann inUtrecht, The Netherlands, and then withGaston Bonnier andÉmile Duclaux inParis from December 1886 to March 1887.[2][9] Elfving attended academic conferences in Stockholm (1880), inKristiania (1886), and inBerlin (1886).[2]
In 1885,Sextus Otto Lindberg proposed that Elfving should be appointedassociate professor, emphasizing his outstanding record as a teacher. The newly appointed professor of zoology,Johan Axel Palmén, objected to the proposal, suggesting that the comparative merits of Elfving and the other docent,Edvard August Vainio, be compared for fairness, especially considering that Vainio had a far superior record as an independent researcher. Although Lindberg's proposal was upheld by a majority in the Department of Natural Sciences, the matter was shelved at a higher level and the initiative went nowhere.[10]
After the death of Lindberg in 1889, the position ofProfessor of Botany was opened. After a competition with the other docents Edvard Vainio andOswald Kairamo, Elfving was appointed to the position.[8] Elfving was the chairman of theSocietas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica [fi] (Finland's oldestscientific society) from 1892–1911, and he was the permanent secretary of theSocietas Scientiarum Fennica (Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters) starting in 1923.[11] Elfving also served asDean of the Department of Physics and Mathematics from 1911 to 1924. A professor for 34 years, Elfving retired at the age of 71 in 1926.[8]
Elfving helped contribute to the acceptance ofDarwinism in Finnish academia. In 1883, a year afterCharles Darwin's death, the idea of placing a commemorative statue of him in theBritish Museum of Natural History spread throughout Europe. A petition to that effect was published in the Finnish newspapers, and it was signed by, among others, five prominent biologists, one of which was Elfving.[12]
In the late nineteenth-century Finnish academic circles, some of the students and faculty from upper class-backgrounds were prejudiced against people from the lower social classes, whom the expansion of schooling in the 1880s had enabled to study at universities. This led to debate on whether there were now too many students, and what inflationary effect this was having on standards. Elfving wrote in 1885: "We know all too well those young men with questionable talent and even more questionable tidiness, who are from uncultivated homes sent to study at university. After their studies they begin to talk about the 'cause of the people' as apostles of civilization in various parts of the country."[13] Elfving's concern about lower-class 'apostles of civilization' preachingFinnish nationalism was not groundless, since about half of the teachers that had been Vyborg Nation students (a collective name for those fromViipuri Province, a nowhistorical province that was laterceded to theSoviet Union after theWinter War) came from a lower-class background.[14] In contrast,Ernst Gustaf Palmén, who was Elfving's colleague, explained that in his experience, the worst students actually came from upper-class families. To get into university, lower-class students had been already forced to show that they were both talented and studious.[13]
In 1894, Elfving started an inquiry into the distribution of plants in Finland. From the 373 responses he received, he assembled the workAnteckningar om kulturväxterna i Finland ("Notes on the culture of plants in Finland"), which was considered an important summary of the cultivated and decorative plants in late nineteenth-century Finland.[15] In the workAtlas de Finlande (1899, 1910) Elfving andArvi Grotenfelt contributed short surveys of economically important cultivated plants in Finland.[16]
In the early decades of the twentieth century, thelanguage issue in Finland stirred up debate in academia. At the time, although both theFinnish andSwedish were commonly used in Finland, the latter language was associated with descendants ofSwedish colonisation, which led to class tensions among the speakers of the different languages. Swedish was largely used in academic settings, and was the predominant language of the upper class.[17] Elfving, although himself a Swedish speaker, strongly supported the use of Finnish in academia. This led to the establishment in 1925, alongside his position of Chair of Botany, of a new professorship in Finnish.Kaarlo Linkola was appointed to this position. After Elfving's retirement, the duties of the head of the department were transferred to the holder of the new Finnish-language chair. Eventually, in 1928,Alvar Palmgren was elected as the new Swedish-speaking professor of botany, filling Elfving's old position.[8]
Elfving's doctoral dissertation studied the reason why therhizomes of many plants take up a horizontal position in the soil. His research determined that the tips invariably turned in such a direction as to bring the longitudinal axis back into a horizontal position in the ground, a reaction caused by the force of gravity. So in addition to having positively and negativelygeotropic organs, the plant also hasorgans that orient themselves at right angles to the direction of the gravitational pull – these are called transversely geotropic. Although the idea had been suggested previously byAlbert Bernhard Frank in 1868, Elfving was the first to prove it experimentally. Frank believed the transversely geotropic organs had an upper side that faced upwards; Elfving showed that this was not true for rhizomes, since if they were turned round their own longitudinal axis 180°, they continued to grow without any torsion.[15]
In 1882, Elfving published the results of an investigation carried out in de Bary's laboratory into theflow of water through ligneousstems. At the time, it was widely believed that the water did not flow through thelumina of the vessels, but in their walls, the so-called "inbibition theory" proposed byJulius von Sachs. Elfving disproved the idea in an experiment in which he caused meltedcocoa butter to be sucked into the stem of a freshly cutTaxus, which he then allowed to cool and harden. Microscopic examination showed that the fat had filled the lumina of the vessels but had not penetrated into their walls. The stem's ability to conduct water was virtually eliminated, showing that water did indeed flow through the lumina, and disproving Sach's theory.[6]
In contrast to Elfving's works on plant physiology, which have generally stood the test of time, his views on lichens, which he himself considered his most important work, was far less favourably received. In his class teachings, Elfving had initially subscribed to the generally accepted view on the dual nature of lichens as proposed bySimon Schwendener in 1867, i.e. that lichens are composite organisms comprising both fungi and algae (i.e.mycobiont andphotobiont). As time passed, however, his doubts about the validity of this theory grew. He questioned whether it was conceivable that lichens were the result of a "continually repeated accident" – the chance meeting of fungus and alga. He thought that if he could show that there was a genetic connection between the two components of the lichen, it would effectively destroy Schwenderer's theory.[18]
After many years of research, Elfving publishedUntersuchungen über Flechtengonidien ("Studies on lichen gonidia") in 1913. In this work, he claimed that he had established by microscopic observation that the gonids (an old term in lichenology for the algal cells of thethallus) originated in thehyphae, and proclaimed that Schwenderer's theory must therefore be abandoned. However, by 1913, it was well-established that the "gonids" in the lichen thallus are actualgreen andblue-green algal cells, and if Elfving's view were to be accepted, it would essentially overturn the entire taxonomy of cryptogams. Although he understood the revolutionary implications of his hypothesis, he remained unwavering, certain that he would ultimately be proven to be correct.[19] It has been suggested that his method of using material that had beenfixed, cut,dyed (rather than keeping a direct watch on developmentin vivo) gave the false impression of a continuous process of development, leading to erroneous interpretations of his observations. His work was either criticized,[20][21] or ignored completely. He published a continuation of his research 18 years later, titledWeitere Untersuchungen über Flechtengonidien ("Further studies on lichen gonidia"), which he started with the mottoE pur si muove. This work was met with a reception similar to his previous one,[19] including another sharp rebuttal by Wilhelm Nienburg.[22] Although Elfving's conclusions about the nature of lichens were erroneous, his studentRunar Collander has suggested that his research did have at least one useful outcome, by elaborating "the element of improbability in the widely and perhaps unthinkingly accepted notion that every individual lichen occurring in nature was necessarily the outcome of an accidental encounter between an alga and a fungus".[19] The understanding of lichen biology and reproduction is now much more nuanced, and we know that in some lichen species independent dispersal and reconstitution of the thallus is common, while in other species, new lichens are created from existing lichens by means of specialized thalluspropagules that contain both mycobiont and photobiont, such assoredia andisidia.[23]
As part of his duties as Professor of Botany, Elfving mentored a number of students who undertook research inplant physiology. Doctoral dissertations resulting from these collaborations include the following:Walter Laurén (1891), who studied the influence ofether vapour ongerminating plants;Widar Brenner [fi] (1914); on thenitrogen nutrition of the fungal genusAspergillus;Minna Rancken [fi] (later Forss) (1914), on the occurrence ofstarch in bryophytes; Runar Collander (1919) onthermotropism in plants;Harry Warén (later Waris) (1920) on pure cultures of lichengonidia; andHanna Lappalainen [fi] (1920) ontrace element requirements and starch formation inAspergillus. Elfving's students who specialized in phycology include the following:Karl Engelbrecht Hirn, who specialized in the familyOedogoniaceae;Alexander Luther, who proposed the existence of theHeterokontae;Rolf Grönblad;Carl Emil Cedercreutz [fi]; andKaarlo Mainio Levander [fi].[24]
Elfving married Thyra Ingman (1870–1939), with whom he had four children, two girls and two boys: Rabbe Fredrik Elfving (1899–1966), Brita Elfving (1900–1917), Astrid Elfving (later Kyreniua) (1902–1982), andErik Gustav Elfving (1908–1984).[25] His youngest son Erik Gustav became a well-knownmathematician andstatistician.[26]
Regarding his personality, his former studentRunar Collander noted: "Elfving stood in a class by himself, combining a strict sense of duty with an exceptional charm. He was renown for his skill in repartee, and his witty, lapidary remarks were widely quoted."[19] Early in his career he would often engage inpolemics on general cultural subjects, often on the pages of the journalFinsk Tidskrift.[19] He was at one time on the editorial board of this journal, starting in 1877, and later became one of its publishers, from October 1883 to December 1885. He also frequently wrote forHelsingfors Dagblad [sv],[2] a Swedish-language newspaper published from 1861 to 1889. Collander writes of the "curious duality" of Elfving's nature:
On the one hand he was a clear-headed, sober scientist, an empiricist and rationalist who hated imprecision of any kind. Yet at the same time he had in him an element of romanticism which sometimes bordered on the fanciful. Elfving the romantic believed that he knew the truth intuitively, and to his intuitions he would cling with the utmost obstinacy even if he had the whole world against him. He was extraordinarily prone to pursue peculiar ideas of his own, displaying a sovereign disregard for recognized authorities and received opinions. It is not surprising that the publications of so self-assured and adventurous a thinker should occasionally strike us as having a touch of amateurishness about them.[10]
Fredrik Elfving died inHelsinki on 21 June 1942, at the age of 87.[11]
Elfving was one of the first researchers in plant physiology in the Nordic countries. In the 1880s, Elfving published a number of plant physiological studies, helping to raise the profile of plant physiology as a science to counterbalance the emphasis placed on taxonomy and morphology prevalent since the influential publications ofCarl Linnaeus.[5] Of the native plants, Elfving specifically studied certainalgae (in particular, the familyDesmidiaceae) as well as crops. In all, during his career, he published about 50 original studies.
Elfving was a keen historian, and wrote numerous biographical articles, the first of which dealt with Linnaeus. In addition, he wrote about thehistory of science of Finland and the university. He made centenary accounts of Finland's two oldest scientific societies, the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica andSocietas Scientiarum Fennica. Elfving was noted for his "highly developed historical sense" and his "skill in the production of vivid and sharply-etched portraits of personalities."[15]
Elfving developed methods for teaching university botany and introduced, among other things, laboratory courses. He introduced microscope training as applied to vascular plant anatomy in 1880, the year before his appointment as docent. A decade later, this course was made compulsory for all botany students. This first laboratory course was later followed by a microscope course in cryptogam systematics, class work in experimental plant physiology, and courses inorganography andseed plant taxonomy. Sometimes, more specialized courses were arranged for students especially interested in botany. Topics included the examination of microscopic algae and thecultivation of bacteria.[27] Contemporaries praised his lecturing skills. Elfving had developed a reputation as a "very colorful and strong personality" and an "excessively demanding teacher".[25] Botany was still a compulsoryminor for medical students in the early 20th century, which made the medical faculty upset by the fact that Elfving was allegedly severely hindering the studies of medical students, even though botany was not particularly relevant to medicine itself.[8] His son Gustav, who had his own academic career at the University of Helsinki, would later recall meeting people who, upon hearing his last name, "immediately recalled the feared oral examination given by his father some decades ago, which they had flunked several times!"[25]
Elfving published several textbooks that would help him and others teach their botanical courses more efficiently. The first edition ofKasvitieteen oppikirja ("Botanical Textbook") appeared in 1903, the fourth in 1930.Deviktigaste kulturväxterna was first published in 1895. Two other texts he published wereVäxtanatomiska öfningar ("Exercises in plant anatomy") (1889) andFörare genom Växthusen i Helsingfors Botaniska Trädgärd (1904), a guide to Helsinki'sbotanical gardens aimed at both the general public as well as the first-year university student.[28] The texts were well received and described as featuring clear and concise presentation, similar to the teaching style of Elfving.[29]
The Department of Botany, which was completed in 1903 inKaisaniemi, Helsinki, and now houses the University's Botanical Museum, was built on Elfving's initiative and according to his plans.[8] Elfving worked for the Institute of Botanics in the Botanical Garden and lived with his family at the Professor's residence.[25] He worked hard to acquire numerous species of shrubs and trees in his role as director of the Botanical Garden, and thegreenhouses became a landmark attraction.[29]
Elfving received theOrder of Saint Anna, 3rd Class (1902),Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1919), and Commander First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1933).[30]
Taxa that have been named after Elfving (eponyms) include thepolypore genusElfvingiaP.Karst. (1889);[31] the lichen taxaRhizocarpon grande f.elfvingiiVain. (1922),[32]Aspicilia elfvingiiVain. (1931),[33] andCelidium varians subsp.elfvingiiRäsänen (1944);[34] the algaeCosmarium elfvingiiRaciborski (1885),[35] andDiploneis elfvingianaC.W.Fontell (1917);[36] the flowering plantHieracium elfvingiiNorrl. (1904);[37] and the waspPhygadeuon elfvingi (Hellen, 1967).[38]
