Johann Julius Walbaum
Johann Julius Walbaum was a German physician, naturalist and fauna taxonomist.Works
As an ichthyologist, he was the first to describe many previously unknown fish species from remote parts of the globe, such as the Great Barracuda, the Chum salmon from the Kamchatka River in Siberia, and the curimatá-pacú from the São Francisco River in Brazil.
He was also the first to observe gloves as a preventative against infection in medical surgery. In 1758, the gloves he observed were made from the cecum of the sheep, rather than rubber, which had not yet been discovered.Legacy
The Naturhistorische Museum in Lübeck, opened in 1893, was based on Walbaum's extensive scientific collection, which was lost during the Second World War.
