Ernst Teichmann


Ernst Gustav Georg Teichmann was a German theologian and zoologist known for his investigations in the field of the tsetse fly and for his books on birth, fertilisation, heredity and death.

Life and work

He studied theology in Lausanne, Giessen, Berlin and Marburg, obtaining his license in theology at Bonn in 1896. From 1898 to 1900, he studied zoology at the University of Würzburg, afterwards continuing his education in zoology at Naples and Marburg. In 1909–10 he worked at the Institute for Maritime and Tropical Diseases in Hamburg, and from 1911 onward, served as a hydrozoologist and departmental head at the institute for hygiene in Frankfurt. He spent a prolonged time in Kenya for studies of the tsetse fly and the animal trypanosomiasis. There he made experiments with hydrogen cyanide to analyse the toxic effect on mosquitoes and lice.

Written works

Teichmann was main editor of the ten-volume "Handwörterbuch der naturwissenschaften". In 1905 he published Vom Leben und vom Tode, ein Kapitel aus der Lebenskunde, a book later translated into English and issued as "Life and death; a study in biology". The following are a few of his principal theological and scientific works: