Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)
Dr. Péter Rózsa: Robert Townson (1762-1827): a pioneer scientific explorer of the Carpathian Basin
0lolevt ZüiwiáMi (4762-4827): a fut O DR. PÉTER RÓZSA ROBERT TOWNSON (1762-1827): A PIONEER SCIENTIFIC EXPLORER OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN obert Townson (1762-1827), English traveller and polymath (Figure 1) is %)/ l/a particular person amongst the scientific explorers of Hungary in the 18 TH century. His book on an almost half-year tour in Hungary, entitled Travels in Hungary with a short account of Vienna in the year 1793 (London, 1797) (figure 2) is a pioneer scientific work, which emerges from similar ones of that age. Notwithstanding the importance of his book, his life has not been known: the Dictionary of National Biography discusses only 7 years of his life. 1 Robert Townson life and work has been studied by Hugh Torrens, and the following short biography is based on his publications (VALLANCE, T.G. - TORRENS, H.S, 1984; TORRENS, H., 1999). Robert Townson was born in Richmond (now part of London) in 1762 as the youngest, illegitimate son of a London merchant. His father died in January 1773, and the family moved to Shropshire. Between 1776 and 1783 Robert served a mercantile apprenticeship in Manchester, but then he decided that such a life was not going to suit him, and determined to become a naturalist. He set off his first travel in 1783 largely on foot to Sicily, exploring France and Italy. On his way home, in 1787, he enrolled as a student of Balthasar Georges Sage (1740-1824), Professor of mineralogy and docimastic metallurgy of the École des Mines, in Paris. He returned to Shropshire in 1788, and next year he went to the famous University of Edinburgh where he studied medicine, chemistry and, later, botany. Edinburgh was then at the height of its Enlightenment, and Townson was taught by some of the most brilliant teachers of medicine (Alexander Munro [1733-1817]), natural history (Daniel Rutherford [1749-1819] and John Walker [1731-1803]) and chemistry (Joseph Black [1728-1799])- His scientific carrier began in 1790. This year he toured the Scottish Highlands, and made the first record of Saxifraga rivularia on Ben Nevis. Townson read two papers to the student Natural History Society of Edinburgh on the mineralogy and lithology of Edinburgh and was elected its president in the same year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
