Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz

Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz was a botanist and physician, born in Roodt-sur-Eisch in Luxembourg in 1722 and died in Judenburg in Austria in 1799. He took his doctorate of medicine in Vienna in 1750 as a pupil of Gerard van Swieten and studied obstetrics in Paris and London. He became a lecturer in obstetrics at St. Mary Hospital in Vienna in 1754 and from 1756 to 1774 taught physiology and materia medica at the university there. His books include a guide to midwifery of 1756, a work on the history of obstetric instruments, a study of irritability, a three-volume materia medica and works on medicinal waters, including those of Transylvania and the Austrian monarchy. He urged better hygiene for midwives and also studied chemistry, botany and the sources of mineral water. The plant genus Crantzia is named for him.