ABSTRACT
Johann David Schoepf, physician, botanist, and geologist, was born in Wunsiedel on March 8, 1752. He was educated by tutors at home until he entered a Gymnasium at Hof, and then entered the University of Erlangen in 1770. Prior to receiving his medical degree he traveled extensively through the mine country of Saxony, studied at Prague and Vienna, and traversed northern Italy and Switzerland. Following his graduation from Erlangen he was appointed Chief Surgeon to the Ansbach (Hessian) troops headed for America. He arrived at New York on June 4th, 1777. Upon the conclusion of the War of Independence, he toured the eastern and southern States, and thence to the Bahamas, and home to Europe in 1784. At the time of his death, on September 10, 1800, he was the President of the United Medical College of Ansbach and Beyreuth.
