Carl VogtBorn 5 Jul 1817; died 5 May 1895 at age 77. Carl Christoph Vogt was a German-Swiss zoologist, physician and politician who lived in Geneva most of his career, and naturalized as a Swiss citizen. Although he originally trained in medicine, his interest turned to the natural sciences. He specialized in marine biology, but also taught geology until he had the opportunity to become chair of zoology (1872). He supported Charles Darwin's ideas about natural selection, and lectured on evolution. Vogt denied creation ex nihilo, and energetically advocated scientific materialism, as subsequently promoted by Ernst Haeckel. Vogt wrote several books and contributed many articles to journals. The textbook he wrote on practical comparative anatomy became a classic. He also wrote on geology and an early work of anthropology. |
