Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel

Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (3 August 1766 – 15 March 1833)[1] was a German botanist and physician who published an influential multivolume history of medicine, Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde (1792–99 in four volumes with later editions running to five) and several other medical reference works.

His father, a clergyman, provided him with a thorough education of wide scope; as boy he distinguished himself as a linguist, in Latin and Greek, and also Arabic; his uncle, Christian Konrad Sprengel (1750–1816), is remembered for his studies in the fertilization of flowers by insects – a subject in which he reached conclusions many years ahead of his time.

appeared as an author at the age of fourteen, publishing a small work called Anleitung zur Botanik für Frauenzimmer ("guide to botany for women") in 1780.

Among the more important of his many services to the latter science was the part he took in awakening and stimulating microscopic investigation into the anatomy of the tissues of the higher plants, though defective microscopic appliances rendered the conclusions arrived at by himself untrustworthy.

[2] Sprengel's multivolume history of medicine was expanded on by Burkard Eble who produced a second edition.