Hermann Adolph Köhler (1834 to 1879) was a German physician and chemist. He is often credited with writing Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen, the book behind our Köhler plates, but how much of that book he wrote is not certain.
His life
Köhler was born in Görlitz in 1834. He studied medicine in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), Berlin, and Halle, and earned his doctorate in Breslau in 1857. After working as an assistant physician at the medical clinic in Halle, he ran a medical practice in Wettin, near Halle, and served as an army doctor in the war of 1866. In 1867 he became a lecturer at the University of Halle, where he taught pharmacology. He served again as an army doctor in the war of 1870 to 1871 and was made a professor in 1874. In the winter of 1877 he fell ill with severe rheumatism of the joints, which he blamed on working in damp laboratory rooms, and he died in Halle in 1879.
His work
Köhler studied medicines and how they act on the body. His books included a guide to materia medica, the study of medicinal substances, written for doctors and students with special attention to the German pharmacopoeia, the official list of approved medicines. Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen was later made as a picture guide to that same official book and others like it.
His link to Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen
Many sources credit him as the main author of the book. But the first volume came out in 1887, 8 years after his death. Its text draws on books published after he died, and its preface is signed only by “the editors.” The fourth and last volume, which includes the fly agaric plate, was completed in 1914, 35 years after his death. Library catalogs often list the publisher, Franz Eugen Köhler, instead. The plates themselves were drawn by artists, mainly Walther Müller.
Köhler plates in our collection
Our botanical art collection includes 12 plates from the book. You can see the full list and read more about the book in our post on Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen.
