The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Cartheuser, Johann Friedrich

CARTHEUSER, Johann Friedrich, a German physician and naturalist, born at Hayn, Sept. 29, 1704, died at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, June 22, 1777. He studied medicine first at Jena and afterward at Halle, where he took the degree of doctor in 1731. He was appointed in 1740 professor of chemistry, pharmacy, and materia medica at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and shortly afterward to the chair of anatomy and botany. Still later he was named professor of pathology and therapeutics. He was also appointed rector of the university, and continued to hold his appointments till his death. He was made member of the academy of sciences, Berlin, in 1758. His chief merit consists in having introduced the method of submitting the various substances of materia medica to a strict ordeal of chemical analysis. He analyzed a great number of plants and other substances, and gave an exact account of the elements which enter into their composition. He published a considerable number of books and dissertations, among which are: Elementa Chymiæ Medicæ Dogmatico-experimentalis (Halle, 1736); Fundamenta Materiæ Medicæ Generalis et Specialis (2 vols., Frankfort, 1749-'50); and De Morbis Endemicis Libellus (Frankfort, 1772).