Inseparable Friends in Life and Death

Book excerpt: Heinrich Kuhl (1797-1821) and Johan Conrad van Hasselt (1797-1823) studied natural history and medicine respectively at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands from 1816 till 1820. During their studies they travelled widely through Europe, and met with famous scientists of the day in Germany, England and France. Due to their extraordinary qualities they were, in 1820, appointed by the Dutch government as the first delegates of the newly founded Commission for the Study of the Natural Sciences of the Netherlands East Indies to study the natural history of that region. Unfortunately their promising lives were cut short by their premature death.This biography describes their lives, their considerable accomplishments in Europe and the Dutch East Indies, and their place in the scientific community at the time, especially in zoological systematics. The results of their systematic studies are shown to be still relevant to present-day science.