Gustav Jger

Personal

Vocation

German naturalist and hygienist known for the system of clothing associated with his name which originates from Die Normalkleidung als Gesundheitsschutz ("Standardized Apparel For Health Protection", 1880), wherein he advocated the wearing of rough fabrics, such as wool, "close to the skin", objecting especially to the use of any kind of plant fibre. The teachings of Jäger inspired the creation of the Jaeger clothing brand. He wrote various works on biological subjects, including Die Darwinsche Theorie und ihre Stellung zu Moral und Religion (1869) and Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Zoologie (1871–1878). In 1876, he suggested a hypothesis in explanation of heredity, resembling the germ plasm theory subsequently elaborated by August Weismann, to the effect that the germinal protoplasm retains its specific properties from generation to generation, dividing in each reproduction into an ontogenetic portion, out of which the individual is built up, and a phylogenetic portion, which is reserved to form the reproductive material of the mature offspring. In Die Entdeckung der Seele ("The Discovery of The Soul", 1878) Jäger advanced the first crude version of the pheromone concept. His postulated skin "anthropines," popularly dubbed "lust compounds," came astoundingly close to reality but the idea was too far ahead of the possibilities of chemistry and the life sciences at this time to be corroborated by experiments. He also was a very active entomologist specialising in beetles particularly Buprestidae and Scarabaeidae. He died on 13 May 1917, aged 84, in Stuttgart, Germany. Link to Wikipedia biography