Mineralogical information in the diary of D. G. Messerschmidt on the route of the future Siberian expedition of P. S. Pallas: materials for the study of scientific continuity

Abstract

This work is aimed at detectinginformation from the field of mineralogy in the documentary heritage of the first scientific expedition to Siberia by D. G. Messerschmidt. The analysis was made of an expedition diary, the original of which is kept in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, – the fragmentsthat describes Messerschmidt’s Siberian route, coinciding with the future route of P. S. Pallas, who visited many of the Siberian regions that Messerschmidt had explored half a century before. Messerschmidt recorded data on several groups of minerals, including salts, metals, clays, micas, etc.The question of Messerschmidt’s creation of his mineralogical collections, as well as their systematics and cataloging deserves special study. The analysis of the results of the Messerschmidt’sobservations provides material for establishing the influence on Pallas of the first German scientist traveler, despite the fact that Pallas knew well Messerschmidt’s scientific heritage and made his efforts to make it public.