Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel

Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (1766 to 1833) was a German botanist and medical doctor, best known for an influential multivolume history of medicine, the Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde, published in four volumes in 1792 to 1799 with later editions running to five, and for several other medical reference works. Born at Boldekow in Pomerania, he was a gifted linguist as a boy, and his uncle Christian Konrad Sprengel is remembered for his studies of the fertilization of flowers by insects. He began to study theology and medicine at the university of Halle in 1784, graduated in medicine in 1787, became extraordinary professor of medicine there in 1789 and ordinary professor in 1795. He also did original work in botany, helped to stimulate microscopic investigation of the tissues of higher plants and improved details of the Linnaean and natural systems of classification. He became a correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands in 1809 and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1810.