NORDENSKIöLD, NILS ERIK

(b. Frugård, Nyland [now Uusimaa], Finland, 23 November 1872; d. Stockholm, Sweden, 28 April 1933)

zoology, history of biology.

Nordenskiöld belonged to a well-known Swedish-Finnish family which had for generations produced outstanding government officials, military men, and scientists. He grew up on the family estate in southern Finland and in the 1890’s studied biology at the University of Helsinki. He did graduate work at Padua and Leipzig and in 1899 was appointed lecturer in zoology at Helsinki, where he taught invertebrate anatomy until 1915. His zoological studies, some of which were done at foreign universities and marine biological stations, were devoted almost entirely to the systematics, anatomy, histology, and spermatogenesis of the Acarina (especially hydrachnids and ticks).

Nordenskiöld’s most important contribution were in the history of biology. His series of lectures at the University of Helsinki (1916–1917) constituted an extensive survey of the development of biology and was published in Swedish in three volumes as Biologiens historia (1921–1924). This work, which was soon translated into German and English, received great international acclaim. Grounded on basic studies in the botanical and zoological sources, it shows as a rule sound judgment in its final analyses, though Nordenskiöld shows, by treating Darwin’s theory of natural selection as obsolete and discredited, that he was dependent on the general evaluation of the biologists of his generation. Throughout his work he always considers the relation of biological theories to philosophy and general cultural development.

In 1917 Nordenskiöld moved to Sweden and became a citizen. In 1926 he was appointed lecturer in the history of zoology at the University of Stockholm. He became a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 1908.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nordenskiöld’s Biologiens historia was published in German (Jena, 1926) and in English as The History of Biology (New York, 1928; new ed., 1935; London, 1929).

A secondary source is Tor Carpelan and L. O. T. Tudeer, Helsingfors universitet. Lärare och tjänstemän frän år 1828, II (Helsinki, 1925), 669–670, and supp. II (Helsinki, 1940), 586–587.

Sten Lindroth