Abstract
J. B. MIKAN, a pioneer in the revival of the study of science in Bohemia, was born two hundred years ago, on December 4, 1742, at Ceska Lipa in North Bohemia. He studied medicine at Prague under Count William Macneven, whose Irish forbears accompanied James II to the Continent in 1689 and became landowners in Bohemia. Count William was director of medical studies in the University of Prague and took a prominent part in supporting the incipient Czech cultural revival during the era of 'enlightened absolutism' under Joseph II. Through Macneven, Mikan, who had become a practitioner at the spa of Teplice, was appointed professor of botany and chemistry at the university in 1775. This post he held for thirty-seven years, lecturing and carrying out research. He re-established proper courses of instruction and made it obligatory for students to qualify in both chemistry and botany as well as in their other subjects. In order to secure proficiency Mikan established the first chemical laboratory in Prague in 1784 and also laid out a botanic garden that is still in existence. The laboratory was a primitive affair adapted from a store-house of the original Carolinum, but it enabled him and his assistants to undertake the first analyses of many Czech spa and thermal waters.
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Josef Bohumir Mikan (1742–1814). Nature 150, 628–629 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150628b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150628b0