Georg Joseph Kamel


Georg Joseph Kamel was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist and naturalist known for producing the first comprehensive accounts of Philippine flora and fauna and for introducing Philippine nature to the European learned world. A number of Kamel's treatises were published in the Philosophical Transactions, while his descriptions of Philippine flora appeared as an appendix to the third volume of John Ray's Historia Plantarum.

Plants named after Kamel

Several plants were named in Kamel's honour, though in his adopted homeland - the Philippines - he was mostly forgotten.
Carl Linnaeus named the well known genus of flowering plants Camellia in Kamel's honour. American botanist Elmer Drew Merrill named Eugenia kamelii after Kamel.

Life

Kingdom of Bohemia

Kamel was born in the city of Brno in the Margraviate of Moravia, governed by the Kingdom of Bohemia, then a part of Habsburg Austria, now the Czech Republic.
He was trained as a lay brother pharmacist at the Jesuit College in Brno. On November 12, 1682 he entered the Society of Jesus, spending his novitiate in Brno and his exams in Krems. In 1685 he was sent as an assistant apothecary to the Holy Trinity College in Jindřichův Hradec, but was soon promoted and moved to the pharmacy of St. Vittus in Český Krumlov in 1686.
His pharmacy has been minutely restored and still exists in the local Museum of Český Krumlov During this time, Kamel applied to be sent to the Jesuit overseas missions and his request was granted.

Philippines

Through Cádiz and New Spain, Kamel arrived in Manila in 1688, where he was assigned to the local Colegio Máximo de San Ignacio. Upon his arrival, he is said to have established the first Jesuit pharmacy in the Philippines, to which he soon added a botanical garden. Given the lack of medical personnel, in addition to work in the pharmacy where he would prepare remedies, Kamel fulfilled the role of a physician, prescribing doses and regimens.
Through Kamel's labours, the Jesuit College in Manila soon became the most reputed one in the Philippines, as his treatment was sought by persons of high authority. At the same time, observing the Christian ideals of charity, he supplied remedies to the poor and the indigenous people for free. Kamel's reputation fast extended even beyond the Philippine Islands, as he entered into scholarly correspondence with learned men both in Europe and Asia. Namely, he exchanged letters, information and specimens with Willem ten Rhijne, a Dutch botanist in Batavia; Samuel Browne and Edward Bulkley, two English surgeons in Madras; and two members of the Royal Society, the apothecary James Petiver and the naturalist John Ray.
Kamel died at the age of 45 from a disease whose symptoms included diarrhoea.

Work

Kamel drew, described and commented on diverse parts of Philippine nature: from plants to animals, from minerals to insects, shells and molluscs, snakes and even monsters, with his first known text published in 1699.
Although the first consignment of his treatises fell into the hands of pirates and was lost, he successfully shipped his accounts to London where they were published by his correspondents Ray and Petiver. Kamel's descriptions of Philippine herbs, shrubs and trees were published as a 96-page appendix to Ray's third volume of Historia Plantarum, while the remainder of his works appeared the Philosophical Transactions. Kamel was the first to acquaint Europe with species such as the tarsier, the colugo and the St Ignatius bean, a medicinal plant and source of strychnine. Linnaeus did not have a high opinion of Kamel's work and he was critical of the descriptions used in John Ray and declared them as “Descriptiones imperfectae. Florum nulla notitia.” Linnaeus preferred the works of Rumphius for plants of the region.
The majority of Kamel's surviving notes are now kept in the British Library in London, while one volume each are held in the Natural History Museum, London and the Maurits Sabbe Library in Leuven, Belgium. Copies of parts of Kamel's work can be found in his birthplace in Brno, the Czech Republic, alongside his birth register records and several other documents.

Overview of some of his works

;Published as an appendix to John Ray's Historia Plantarum
;Published in Philosophical Transactions from 1699
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