Johan Adam Pollich

Johann Adam Pollich was a physician and naturalist from Kaiserslautern in the Palatinate who died there in February 1780, still a young man. His birth is dated to 1 January 1740 in the text of the biography the entry cites, while the index heading of the same page gives 1741. He studied medicine at Strasbourg, took his doctorate and practised for a short time, but from 1764 devoted himself wholly to natural science, above all botany, travelling through his small homeland in every direction and season. The fruit of about twelve years of collecting was the Historia plantarum in Palatinatu electorali sponte nascentium, whose first volume appeared in 1776 and the second and third in 1777; its plant descriptions were widely praised. He also wrote two papers on insects, the second published after his death. He is a case of a trained doctor whose legacy lies in natural history rather than in medicine.