Paul Amman

Paul Amman was a German physician and botanist who lived from 1634 to 1691. He was born at Breslau in Silesia, now Wroclaw in Poland, and received his doctorate of physic from the University of Leipzig in 1662. Two years later he was admitted to the society Naturae Curiosorum under the name Dryander, and soon afterwards he became an extraordinary professor of medicine at Leipzig. In 1674 he was promoted to the botanical chair, which in 1682 he exchanged for the chair of physiology, and he died at Leipzig in 1691. He is described as a man of critical mind and extensive learning. His principal works were Medicina Critica of 1670, an appeal to teachers for the emendation of medical institutions of 1673, Supellex Botanica of 1675, Character Naturalis Plantarum of 1676 and a treatise setting the legendary king Numa Pompilius beside Hippocrates, printed in 1689. William Houstoun named the plant genus Ammannia in his honour, and Linnaeus kept the name in his Critica Botanica.