[1] At his suggestion, Johann Amman left Hans Sloane in London to take up a post in St Petersburg.

The final two volumes of Johann Christian Buxbaum's (1693–1730) Centuria were published posthumously by Gmelin.

During the early part of the expedition - leaving St Petersburg in August 1733 - he was accompanied by the young student Stepan Krasheninnikov.

He described the position of the Yenisey river as a boundary between Europe and Asia and participated in measuring the lowest temperature ever recorded at Yeniseysk.

Unfortunately, Gmelin's residence burned on November 8, destroying all his natural history collections and notes plus part of his library.