HUMBOLDT, ALEXANDER VON

born Sept. 14, 1769, Berlin died May 6, 1859, Berlin in full Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Freiherr (baron) Von Humboldt German naturalist and explorer who was a major figure in the classical period of physical geography and biogeographyareas of science now included in the earth sciences and ecology. With his book Kosmos he made a valuable contribution to the popularization of science. The Humboldt Current off the west coast of South America was named after him. Additional reading Helmut De Terra, Humboldt: The Life and Times of Alexander von Humboldt, 17691859 (1955, reprinted 1979); L. Kellner, Alexander von Humboldt (1963); Douglas Botting, Humboldt and the Cosmos (1973). Works Ansichten der Natur, mit wissenschaftlichen Erluterungen (1808; Aspects of Nature, in Different Lands and Different Climates, 1849), descriptions of scenic aspects and a sketch of the geography of plants for the general reader; Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland aux rgions quinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 17991804, 23 vol. (180534; Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent During the Years 17991804, 7 vol., 181429), a well-known account of the journey through the grasslands of Venezuela and the Orinoco River basin that had a great influence on Charles Darwin; Asie Centrale, 3 vol. (1843), significant for its report on relatively unknown regions and for its ideas on comparative climatology.