Martinus van Marum (1750 - 1837)

Field(s) of interest: chemistry | physics | botany | medicine | scientific instruments
Gender: male

Born: Delft, 20-03-1750
Died: Haarlem, 26-12-1837

Biography:
Martinus van Marum was the son of Petrus van Marum and Cornelia van Oudheusden. The van Marum family stemmed from Groningen and belonged to the Reformed church. His father was land surveyor and agricultural specialist. From 1744 to 1764 he owned a delftware factory art Delft where he worked as master potter. Van Marum attended the primary school and Latin school at Delft. After the return of the family to Groningen, in 1664, he matriculated at Groningen university to study philosophy and medicine.
Among his teachers there were Petrus Camper (medicine and botany), Dionysius van de Wijnpersse (physics), Wouter van Doeveren (medicine, chemistry, and mineralogy), and Antonius Brugmans (philosophy, physics, and mathematics). Especially Camper was very influential; his views on botany aroused in van Marum a life-long interest in plants, and friendship with Camper until the latters death in 1794. Contrary to the then common taxonomical studies, Camper advocated the study of the anatomy and physiology of the plant. In 1773 van Marum obtained the doctors degree in philosophy on a highly praised thesis about the sap streams in plants. Later that year he graduated in medicine on a thesis in which he compared the physiology of sap streams in plants and animals.
Aspiring to a job as professor in botany van Marum was very disappointed when he was not elected to succeed Camper. He immediately turned his interests to the field of electricity. In 1776 he published a report on the technical improvements he introduced to the electrical machine. In the same year he went to Haarlem where he set up as a general practitioner (until 1780). The city of Haarlem appointed him as municipal lecturer in philosophy and medicine in 1776. Van Marum took this matter seriously: until 1780 he gave 52 public lectures on physical topics. In the context of Teylers Foundation (see later) he would give another 163 lectures (until 1803). Until 1797 his subjects were mainly of a physico-chemical and technical nature, later he treated geological, mineralogical, and palaeontological issues.
In 1781 van Marum married the extremely wealthy printers daughter Joanna Bosch (1739-1821), which made his possible for him to devote his life fully to the propagation and popularizati¬on of science. Thanks to his continuous and efficient activities, van Marum was able to make Haarlem a very important centre of Dutch science at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Van Marum used two institutions to reach his goals: the Dutch Society of Sciences (Hollandsche Maatschap¬pij der Wetenschappen; founded in 1752), and Teylers Foundati¬on (founded in 1778 by the wealthy menist merchant Pieter Teyler van der Hulst).
Van Marum was appointed director of the Cabinet of Curiosities of the Dutch Society in 1777; he became its perpetual secretary in 1794. In 1784 he was appointed director of Teylers Cabinet of Physical and Natural Curiosities and Library. All these functions he combined until his death. The personal and institutional wealth of both van Marum and the institutions made it him possible to expand the collections and libraries to a scale that made them famous all over Europe. From 1782 to 1802 he made a number of journeys abroad that brought him much fossil material and minerals. His most famous acquisitions were J.J. Scheuchzers homo diluvii testis, actually a fossil salamander, the fossil Mosasaurus camperi, and Beringers Lügensteine.
Apart from these activities van Marum was involved in scientific research too. His scientific ideas rested on two pillars: physico-theology, and utility. During the first half of his scientific life physico-theological interests prevailed, especially in his chemical research, his later works were mainly motiviated by utilitarian goals. In the Verhandelingen of Teylers Foundation Van Marum published the results of many electrical and chemical experiments he had carried out with the largest electrical machine of the time. This spectacular machine was installed in 1784 in Teylers Museum by its maker, the British instrument maker John Cuthbertson. It had two large, round glass plates each 1.65 metres in diameter. With this electrical machine he tried to discover the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Van Marum was a life long supporter of Benjamin Franklins one fluid theory of electricity. The new Voltaic pile was quickly adopted by Van Marum, who named it after its Italian inventor.
His most important experiments, however, lay in the field of chemistry. In 1785 was the first to recognize a peculiar odour of electricity, which we now call ozone. Together with Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk he did experiments in the winters of 1785-1786 and 1786-1787 which were concentrated on the new combustion theory of the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier. These convinced him of the correctness of the new chemisty, and he became a staunch advocate of the Frenchmans ideas. In 1787 he published a summary of this oxidation theory, even before Lavoisier did so himself. With his newly developed gazometer he discovered carbon monoxide.
From 1802 onwards Van Marums attention shifted to botany, concentrating on South African plants. For the prince of Salm-Dyck he compiled a systematic catalogue of his aloe collection, which reflected his renewed interest in plant systematics and taxonomy. However, his interest in the relation between electricity and magnetism caused him to repeat Oersteds famous experiments in 1822.
Van Marum was always interested in the practical and organisational aspects of science. He issued many competitions to write essays on scientific topics and took care of the publication of the prize-winning ones. During the French reign, king Louis Napoleon asked him, among others, to draft a constitution for a new national scientific institution, the Royal Institute of Science, Literature, and Arts (Koninklijk Instituut van Weten¬schappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten), which was established in 1808. Until 1836 Van Marum was one of the most active members of this scientific institution. In 1814, the new king of the Netherlands, William I, appointed Van Marum to a commission for the restructuring of higher education, and in 1821 to a commission charged with the exploration of the possibilities of active control of the Dutch rivers.
As a physician Van Marum was a typical representative of the Aufklärungsarzt (En¬lightenment physician), who strived to make science and medicine subservient to the interests of society at large. In Van Marums case this attitude was also stimulated by his belief in a practical form of christianity. Examples are his propagation of the use of pure oxygen to revive drowned persons, the use of steam baths for cholera patients, artificial ventilation in houses, factories and aboard ships, and the improvement of the digestor, originally invented by Denis Papin, to provide the poor with nutritive soups.
Van Marum maintained a large network of scientific contacts and correspondents throughout his life. He was a (corresponding) member of no less than 37 scientific societies in Europe and the United States. Van Marum died on 26 December 1837, honoured by Dutch and French societies, and leaving as his heir a natural son born in 1829.

Occupations:
Physician: 1776 - 1780 (Haarlem)

Director 'Physisch kabinet' and library: 1784

Sources:
Marum, M. van, Algemene Vergadering Instituut 1838, p. 11-12 door H.H. Klijn; Verslagen Instituut Klasse I, 1839, p. 5-7 door W.S. Swart.

Molhuysen, P.C., en Fr.K.H. Kossmann (redactie), Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek. Deel 10. (Leiden 1937) 588.

“Naamlijst der leden van het Vrijdag’s Gezelschap”, in: Naamlijst der leden van het Vrijdag's Gezelschap, opgerigt te Amsterdam den 17 december van het jaar 1734, onder de zinspreuk: Libertate et Concordia, en eenige gedichten daartoe betrekkelyk (Amsterdam 1812).


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