Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
24 Historical survey Ungarisches Magazin (Figure 2.9). 76 It explains in eight pages his views on classification in natural history, espousing the Linnaean principles of taxonomy. CONRAD also wrote the first work on the insect fauna of Sopron. In this, he discussed the value and usefulness of entomology and gave detailed Latin descriptions of 30 species of beetle found in the district (CONRAD 1782). He also made zoological contributions to the Göttingen Gelehrte Anzeigen. 77 Not too unsurprisingly, JÓZSEF CONRAD'S father ANDRÁS (ANDREAS CONRAD) also collected plants. He had exotic plants sent to him from Ceylon, by JAKAB KRAUSZ, 78 who was also born in Sopron. 79 The first five volumes of a vast work of natural history by JÁNOS KERESZTÉLY GROSSINGER (1728-1803) appeared in 1793-7 80 and a further four have survived in manuscript. The first four published volumes deal with zoology and the fifth (the first on botany) with trees and shrubs. The work was sharply criticized by later writers for its inconsistent nomenclature and inclusion of tales and legends. However, it contains large amounts of faunistic and floristic information and observations, 81 and a valuable register of Hungarian, German and Slav names. 82 To choose one interesting item in the second volume, he mentions the occurrence of great bustard (Otis tarda) in the vicinity of Szombathely and Kőszeg. ROBERT TOWNSON (1762-1827), an Englishman who visited Hungary in the 18th century, avoided Western Hungary, so that his enjoyable and thorough descriptions do not extend to conditions in the West Hungarian border region. 83 However, the appendix of his book Entomologia includes descriptions of 76 The full name of the journal was 'Ungarisches Magazin oder Beyträge zur ungrischen Geschichte, Geographie, Naturwisenschaft, und der dahin einschlagenden Litteratur'. 4 vols (1781-4). Pressburg. For detail, see KOSÁRY, D. 1987 (1983). Culture and Society in EighteenthCentury Hungary. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó. 77 KOSÁRY 1987. 78 KRAUSZ, JAKAB (C. 1735-1787), was a cloth-cutter's apprentice who set off to Western Europe meaning to study. When he was in Holland, he was recruited by the Dutch East India Company and shipped to Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). He reached the rank of an artillery officer in the Dutch colonial army and was posted to the Dutch Indian possessions, taking part in campaigns against the natives and the English in Ceylon. See: TARDY, L. 1979. Régi hírünk a világban (Our Old Reputation in the world). Budapest. 79 CSATKAI, E. 1928. Világjáró soproniak Mária Terézia korában (Globetrotting Sopron people in the time of Maria Theresa). Sopronvármegye, November 21, 1928; idem 1938. Könyvgyűjtők, régiséggyűjtők a régi Sopronban (Collectors of books and antiquities in old Sopron). Soproni Szemle 2:132-43. 80 GROSSINGER, J. К. 1793-7. Universa história physica regni Hungáriáé, secundum tria naturae digesta. 5 vols. Posonii et Comaromii [Pozsony and Komárom]. 81 ABAFI-AIGNER, L. 1897. Grossinger János. Rovartani Lapok 4:69-71. 82 HANÁK 1849; MÁRKI, S. 1882. Grossinger János hazánk természeti viszonyainak leírója a múlt században (JG, describer of natural conditions in this country in the last century). Természettudományi Füzetek (Temesvár) 6:71, 100 and 165; ABAFI-AIGNER, L. 1897. Az első hazai entomologiai mű I—II. (This country's first work of entomology). Rovartani Lapok 4:113-15 and 148-51; GOMBOCZ 1936. 83 TOWNSON, R. 1797. Travels in Hungary with a Short Account of Vienna in the Year 1793. London.
