FUCHSEL, GEORG CHRISTIAN

born Feb. 14, 1722, Ilmenau, Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire died June 20, 1773, Rudolstadt, Thuringia German geologist, a pioneer in the development of stratigraphy, the study of rock strata. Fchsel began medical practice in 1756 and the following year was appointed to organize the natural science collections of Friedrich Carl, later prince of the German principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, where Fchsel became court physician (1767) and librarian (1770). The originator of the idea of stratigraphic formations, he was one of the first actually to make recorded measurements of sections of stratified rock. He also made the first geological map of Germany and adjacent areas.