Fritz Müller

Dr J. Fritz T. Müller (alternatively spelt Mueller (see ü) or Anglicised to Muller; 1821–1897) was a German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he studied the natural history of the rainforest, and was an early advocate of Darwinism. Müllerian mimicry is named for him.

Biography

As a medical student he started to question religion and in 1846 became an atheist, joining the Free Congregation . He then refused to swear his medical oath because it contained the phrase "so help me God and his sacred gospel", and was disappointed by the 1848 Prussian Revolution . Also a believer in free love. As a result, he moved to Brazil in 1852.

Müller wrote Für Darwin in 1864, arguing that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection that had been first advanced 5 years before in The Origin of Species was correct. This was translated into English by W.S. Dallas as Facts and Arguments for Darwin in 1867.

Despite living in the back end of nowhere , Müller corresponded with Charles Darwin, Hermann Muller, Alexander Agassiz, Ernst Krause , and Ernst Haeckel, amongst others.

Between 1874 and 1891, Müller worked as a travelling naturalist for the Brazilian National Museum , working with basic materials.

See also Henry Walter Bates.

Biography

A biography in German, see Alfred Moeller (1920): Fritz Mueller. Werke, Briefe und Leben

A more modern biography is given by David A. West. Fritz Müller: A Naturalist in Brazil. Blacksburg: Pocahontas Press, 2003. ISBN 0-936015-92-6

External links

• http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/lefa/Mueller.html
• Facts and Arguments for Darwin
• Dr. Fritz Müller on Some Difficult Cases of Mimicry (1882)
• Review of West's biography (pdf file)