The History of Discus Fishes - USPdocentes.esalq.usp.br/sbn/classics/jobert2discus.pdf · The History of Discus Fishes ... His fish was later (1840) described as Symphysodon discus

B L E H E R S D I S C U S 2726 B L E H E R S D I S C U S

C H A P T E R

1The History of Discus Fishes

FIRST DISCOVERY; THE SECOND DISCUS ;DISCOVERIES IN THE 20TH CENTURY

contemplating securing his succession via a new marriage –preferably marriage into an imperial family – and that he hadrepeatedly flirted with the dynasty of the Russian Tsars. Thisview was reinforced by the meeting in Erfurt.

However, the Tsar was apparently of a different opinion.When, in 1808, he learned of Napoleon’s intentions, he imme-diately married his elder sister Katherina to the Duke of Hol-stein-Oldenburg. But there was still his sister Anna. She was thenonly 13 years old, and there would have to be a delay, butNapoleon wasted no time. In 1809 he despatchedhis emissaries to St. Petersburg with an officialproposal. Meanwhile (on 16th December1809) the Senate had pronounced thedivorce of Napoleon and Joséphine.

The wily Metternich was thus fullyaware of the danger hanging over Aus-tria in the event of a marital unionbetween France and Russia, whichwould threaten not only her owndestruction but also the carving upof Europe between these two greatpowers. The fraudulently obtainedpeace treaty (October 1809)between France and Austria hadalready divided the country, requir-ing large areas to be forfeited, andaccess to the sea to be relinquished.She had also been compelled togive up all trade with England. Butat least this undesirable treaty hadallowed the Austrian Emperor toreturn to Vienna on the 26th Novem-ber, and Metternich to take office asMinister of State and do what he hadbeen planning: “...from the day of thesigning of the peace treaty our strategymust be solely to resist, connive, evade, andcajole. Only thus will we succeed in survivinguntil the day of the very probably universal lib-eration.”

On the 28th November – ie two days after his arrivalat the Ballhausplatz – he summoned Count Alexandre deLaborde to his office. The latter was the son of a great financier,a member of the national government in Vienna, and acting ascommissioner for the regulation of certain financial interestsdependent on the recently implemented peace treaty. Metternichput forward the possibility of a marriage between the French

Emperor and an Archduchess: “The idea is my own, I have notyet sought the views of the Emperor on this matter, but I amalmost certain that he will look favourably on the scheme”, hesaid. When Metternich then learnt from de Laborde thatNapoleon would consent provided acceptance of his proposalwas guaranteed (clearly the two Russian “flops” had not gonedown well with the French ruler), and that the way was clear inParis, he wrote to his master on the 7th February 1810, “The

marriage scheme will undoubtedly develop to our bene-fit.” Ultimately his “idea” not only had the desired

effect, but also proved popular with the entireland-owning class when the news spread like

wildfire. It even saw Austrian governmentsecurities rise by 30% on the stock

exchange.The 1st April 1810 was no matter for

joking, but the day of the civil ceremo-ny, with – who would have thought it– the religious service in the Louvrethe next day. In the Louvre becausethe Pope had not given Napoleonhis consent and for this reason hewished to avoid a wedding in NotreDame. The elders of the RomanCatholic religion opposed a churchwedding between the Archduchessand a divorced man.

Just as in the case of Marie-Louise(who was called Marie Ludovicabefore her marriage), the EmperorFranz I (II) did not dare oppose the

all-powerful Chancellor when it cameto Leopoldine. In 1816 Metternich

suggested the marriage of his daughterto the heir to the throne of Portugal,

Brazil, and Algarde – and, of course, aswith Marie-Louise this was for political as

well as personal considerations. The followingis the background to the situation.

In 1807 the Portuguese court had decamped in itsentirety to Brazil. Napoleon occupied Portugal, but

himself abandoned it later. The neighbouring English tookadvantage of the situation, seducing the Portuguese people withtheir liberal policies. For this reason the Portuguese king, JoãoVI, was interested in a closer liaison with the houses of Habsburgand Braganza, which promised greater security against GreatBritain.

B L E H E R S D I S C U S 29

FIRST DISCOVERY

It was an extraordinary day in the history of Austria – in tworespects – when the State Chancellor and Foreign Minister,Prince Clemens Wenzel von Metternich, who in his day wieldedconsiderable influence at the imperial court and on Kaiser FranzI (II), sampled the very first Sacher-Torte in Vienna. It was laterto become the most famous cake in the world, and the hand-written recipe has remained a closely-guarded secret right up tothe present day. Round about the same time (1832), theassistant supervisor of the imperial natural historycollection, and leader of the Austrian expeditionto Brazil that had started back in 1817,became the first white man ever to handle adiscus: the Austrian Johann Baptist Nat-terer. His fish was later (1840) describedas Symphysodon discus by Jakob Heckel,along with many other species of fishdiscovered by Natterer (see page28). During his 18 year expeditionto Brazil, this Austrian collected atotal of 1671 fishes, 1678 reptilesand amphibians, 12293 birds,1146 mammals, 32825 insects,1729 vials of intestinal worms,1024 mussels, 125 eggs of variousspecies, 430 mineral samples, 192skulls, 42 anatomical specimens,242 seed samples, 216 coins, and1492 ethnographic items. But justas neither von Metternich nor the16-year-old baker’s apprentice,Franz Sacher, who created the Sach-er-Torte, could have foreseen the sub-sequent world-wide success of thatconfection, likewise Natterer had noidea that his discovery would one daybecome the most popular of all aquariumfishes, the “King of the Amazon”.

So what does this so influential State Chancel-lor von Metternich have to do with the very firstdiscovery of the discus, and who was he anyway? Well,let me tell you.

The future Chancellor of the Austrian Empire was born in1773, in the German village of Metternich, on the left bank ofthe Mosel, just a few kilometres from Koblenz, and was baptisedClemens Wenzeslas Lothar von Metternich-Winneburg. At thattime Louis XV still ruled in France, Maria Theresa in Austria,

Katharina II in Russia, and Friedrich II in Prussia; NapoleonBonaparte was only four years old, just like Arthur Wellesley,Duke of Wellington, his eventual conqueror.

When Metternich died 86 years later, the rulers who survivedhim were Victoria I, Franz-Josef I, Alexander II, and a boy hadbeen born into the Prussian royal family whose destiny was tobring about the demise of the old, monarchistic Europe whichthe aged servant of the Austrian Empire had supported against

all change. Between these two epochs there was hardly an event

of any importance in which Metternich was notinvolved, be it as witness or active participant;

there was no notable personality during histime that he didn’t know personally. Thus it

was he that arranged the marriages of theEmperor’s daughters Marie-Louise andLeopoldine. The latter is of the mostinterest to us, in connection with thefirst discus, although in my view itwas Napoleon who was to “blame”(or, at least, chiefly to blame) forNatterer being sent on his travels.But judge for yourself.

Metternich was already wellaware, when he began to draw thethreads of the marriage of PrincessLeopoldine’s darling older sisterMarie-Louise together, that mar-riage was a favourite instrument ofHabsburg politics. “Bella gerant alii,tu felix Austria nube!” (Let others

wage war; you, lucky man, marry Aus-tria). And marriage between Marie-

Louise and Napoleon would mean thatthe Austrian princess, once established in

Paris, could moderate the demands of theconqueror, lay his suspicions to rest.

It is important to realise that in September1808 Napoleon had held discussions in Erfurt

with Tsar Alexander I. Pawlowitsch, his “dear broth-er and ally” as he called him, and Metternich had been

present. And that following 1805, the Corsican tyrant had occu-pied Austria for a second time in 1809. That the existence of theAustrian Empire did not accord with Napoleon’s concept ofworld domination; and that the Emperor’s declarations of good-will towards the French had met with other than belief...

Metternich was also aware that by 1808 Napoleon was already

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time working at the Natural History Museum in Florence, to goon the trip.

Together with von Schreibers, Metternich suggested JohannNatterer as the scientific leader in the field.

Since 1806 Natterer had been working in the Naturalien-Cab-inet, initially as a visiting researcher (until 1808), and thereafteras an unpaid member of staff. From the end of 1809 he received300 florins per year. He had already won recognition fromDirector von Schreibers for his work capturing marsh and aquat-ic birds from the Neusiedlersee and the Plattensee for the impe-rial collection. He had collected in Croatia, Hungary, andStyria, and along the Adriatic coast. In 1808 he wascommissioned to take charge of a consignmentof natural and archaeological items that hadarrived in Trieste from Egypt, and accom-pany it to Vienna. On his own initiative– and mainly in his spare time – he col-lected fishes and intestinal worms, thelatter for his director, who was alearned doctor who had very earlyin his career established a collectionrelating to the worm diseases com-mon in those days. Moreover theEmperor himself had personallyawarded Natterer a certificate ofcommendation for this work, andgranted him permission to work inthe Naturalien-Cabinet withoutremuneration (this was, of course, asignal honour...).

As well as making several trips to Italy– to Calabria – for the Emperor, usuallyto bring back creatures arrived from over-seas or to make collections himself, he gaveprivate tuition in English, Italian, and French.He was also involved in the original repatriation ofvaluable items belonging to the Naturalien- Cabinet fromOfen (Budapest) in 1806. When Napoleon marched in during1805 everything had been evacuated as it was well known thatthe French plundered collections. Napoleon always ensured thatscientists accompanied the rearguard of his army, and during theEgyptian campaign this led to important discoveries such as thefamous Rosetta Stone. There were two evacuations and repatria-tions, in 1809 and 1813, in which Natterer played a significantpart. In 1815, on the order of his Emperor, he travelled with vonSchreibers to Paris in order to organise the return to the ViennaMünz- und Antikencabinet of the art treasures, libraries, and oth-

er items that had been spirited away from Austria by Napoleonin 1809.

Natterer’s involvement with the collections during the “Frenchyears” and repatriations was one reason why in 1816 he was pro-moted to “supervisory assistant” in the Naturalien-Cabinet, andultimately was appointed scientific leader of the Brazil expedi-tion in the field. Even so, shortly before the departure of theexpedition there was a dispute, as there were moves to replacehim with a certain naturalist from Prague, Doctor Johann Chris-tian Mikan k.k. (of the Cabinet of Natural Objects), a professor

of botany, a suggestion he opposed vigorously. In the end theexpedition party was split into two groups, with each

of them leading one part. Both groups had to fol-low the direct instructions of their respective

leader, and in every case consult him withregard to suggestions for excursions and

collections to be made.A set of “Instructions for service for

the naturalists Doctor Johann Chris-tian Mikan k.k., Professor of botanyfrom Prague, and Mr. Johann Nat-terer k.k., Naturalien-Cabinet assis-tant from Vienna, appointed to theexpedition to Brazil” was given tothem, and was binding on all theparticipants. Inter alia, Rio deJaneiro was to be the starting pointfor all excursions. Travel plans

must be made in advance, and,indeed, include details of accommoda-

tion, routes, hazards, duration, detailsof the return journey, etc. It would

appear that no-one at the court of Viennahad very much knowledge about Brazil and

the jungle! Let alone the conditions in that vastcountry. Only consider, Natterer needed more than

a year just to get from the coast to the Mato Grosso. (Some-thing my mother, along with four children, managed in a month125 years later, and which today takes only two hours by plane.)

I find the section of these instructions, “Notes and commentsfor the expedition to Brazil”, particularly interesting: for exam-ple, they were particularly to “search for half savage aboriginals,long-bearded apes, gold-panning opportunities, etc.” in Canta-galo, rather nearer the coast. Cantagalo is in the state of Rio deJaneiro and was already than a well known Município...

When the frigates of the Austrian navy, Austria and Augusta,left Trieste on the 9th of April 1817, it was the first time in the


Following the agreement made at the Vienna Congress (1815),Portugal became part of Metternich’s system of alliances, as hehimself perceived that Austria would become stronger throughher influence on Portugal and the New World. (Brazil was ele-vated to the status of kingdom because of the liaison with Por-tugal, and thus became the only monarchy in South America.)And Metternich knew that his Emperor, Franz I (II), desired therestoration of the monarchy in Portugal, which would effective-ly put an end to the liberalisation. And the instrument for thatcould only be Leopoldine.

As well as representing the political and economic interestsof Austria, the State Chancellor had, of course, notforgotten to think a little further ahead. If onlybecause his Emperor was a dedicated garden-er – for which reason he became known toposterity as the Blumenkaiser (Emperorof flowers). Franz I (II) had greenhous-es erected and parks created. His chil-dren were also enchanted withnature, and he commissioned thecreation of a garden for them inSchönbrunn, a garden which theyhad to look after themselves as partof their education, and whichserved to instruct them in botany.Leopoldine herself loved countrylife and nature. She maintained herown orchard in Laxenburg – thesummer residence of the imperialhousehold – where she herself culti-vated various berry fruits, as well askeeping white foxes, a parrot, and ban-tams from Angola, and breeding hares.

So what could be more appropriate than forher Highness and Austria to also derive some sci-entific benefit? He therefore suggested that a missionfor the benefit of science and culture should take place in con-junction with the marriage of her Highness the Austrianprincess. Of course permission was given, and the planning forthis expedition was already under way in 1816. Metternich wasin overall charge, and von Schreibers, the director of the Natu-ralien-Cabinet in Vienna, supervised the scientific side.

On the 29th November 1816 the betrothal of ArchduchessLeopoldine and the son of King João VI, Dom Pedro, wassealed. Emperor Franz I (II) had not given his consent until thereturn of the Portuguese royal house to Lisbon was imminent.He did not find it an easy decision, but it would be the first time

in the history of the world that an emperor’s daughter hadcrossed an ocean to a virtually unexplored land.

Leopoldine began to study all the contemporary books onBrazil, as well as maps pertaining to South America. She learntthe Portuguese language.

The wedding took place on the 13th May 1817 in the churchof St Augustine in Vienna, albeit in the absence of the bride-groom, who was represented per procurationem by the ArchdukeKarl. The 13th May because this was the birthday of Dom João.Leopoldine had sought in vain to make it a different date. She

was superstitious, and moreover, her mother had died on a13th, her darling sister Marie Louise had taken her

leave of the imperial family on a 13th, it was ona 13th that Austria had lost a battle against

France, and many other instances. ThePortuguese ambassador from Paris, the

Marquês de Marialva, who (armed witha healthy bank balance, diamonds andother precious stones, and jewelry)had previously officially asked forthe hand of the Archduchess in thename of the son of Dom João andthereby promulgated the fiction ofBrazil as a land of unsurpassedwealth, was originally supposed torepresent the son at the wedding,but assigned his authority to theArchduke Karl. Nevertheless he

arranged, from France, for festivitiesto take place over several days, an

event that long remained in the memo-ries of the Viennese.Because Metternich also wanted interna-

tional recognition for the expedition, ratherthan it being merely a collecting trip for the impe-

rial natural history collection, he approached variousscientists from overseas, including Alexander von Humboldt, avisitor to his salon. The latter presented him with a long “wishlist”...

Eventually Metternich had assembled a team totalling 14 aca-demics, researchers, doctors, and painters. At the request of theBavarian king, Max Joseph I, the expedition was to be accompa-nied for a while by the botanist Philipp Friedrich von Martius(1794-1868) and the zoologist Johann B. von Spix (1781-1826),a member of the Academy and Conservator of the zoologicalcollection in Munich. The Grand Duke Ferdinand von Toscanaeven delegated the naturalist Joseph Raddi (1770-1829), at that

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FIRST DISCOVERY FIRST DISCOVERY


history of Austria that ships had ventured overseas. And therewere still serious problems, such as a lack of navigational equip-ment. The only chronometer in the entire k.k. marine arsenal ofVenice was defective, and not until Gibraltar did they obtain afunctional one. There was likewise no sextant until the marinecommandant fetched one of his own.

Aboard the Austria were Mikan and his wife, Spix, Martius(both pictured right), and others, while Natterer and his assistanthunter/conservator Sochor shipped on the Augusta. Both frigateswere wrecked off the Adriatic coast in a storm onlythree days later. The Augusta lost all her masts andhad to lay up in Pola (todays Croazia) for a longtime; the Austria, on the other hand, was soonunder way again and first reached Rio de Janeiroon the 14th June 1817. After her repairs the Augus-ta joined the Portuguese fleet of two ships inGibraltar and all three ships put into GuanabaraBay off Rio on the 4th November 1817, wherethey were welcomed with cannon, bells, and fire-works.

Metternich, who had accompanied the Arch-duchess Leopoldine to Livorno, where sheembarked, wrote letters to his family describinginteresting events and detours during his journeyacross Italy. And I cannot resist including a fewextracts here, in part because I myself have nowlived in this beautiful country for several years. Heenthuses about Padua, Ferrara, and Bologna, andthen writes:

Florence, 14th June 1817:“We have been here since 11 o’clock yesterday

morning... Everything I have seen so far exceedsmy expectations. Good God! What fellows thosemen of the past were!.. The country is glorious...the climate is heavenly.”

And because the arrival of the “cursed squadron”– as he termed the Portuguese fleet – continued tobe delayed:

26th July 1817:“The squadron is, happily, now at anchor in Livorno... I am off

on my travels again, to the Baths of Lucca. I plan to begin mytreatment tomorrow...” (He had eye problems and even had aneye specialist with him.)

Baths of Lucca, 28th July 1817:“I am staying in the house that Elisa (Napoleon’s eldest sister)

had built for herself, or rather, had converted for herself (todaysVila Reale outside of Lucca). That should tell you that it is com-

fortable and well located... News from Livorno... that thesquadron will weigh anchor before 15th August.”

Livorno, 10th August 1817:“I arrived here at eight in the evening. I found the entire court

here, along with 4,000 foreigners, I saw my princess and went toan evening entertainment.”

11th August 1817:“This morning I was aboard the Portuguese warships... You

cannot imagine how many people there are on such a warship...As well as the Austrian ladies the entire Portuguesecourt is there... The number of officers of all rankshas been tripled. In addition there are a consider-able number of cows, calves, pigs, lambs, 4,000chickens, several hundred ducks, and 4,500canaries, as well as large and small birds fromBrazil; so you can imagine that Noah’s Ark wasjust a child’s toy compared with the Johann VI.”(He was referring to the Dom João VI, one of thetwo warships transporting the bride. There were atotal of 1,300 men on the São Sebastião and theDom João VI. The numerous ornamental birdswere for the entertainment of her Highness.)

13th August 1817: “Today around four I escorted her Ladyship the

Archduchess on board her ship... her apartmentpleased her very well... it would have been diffi-cult to have decked it out more elegantly.”

And then from the Baths of Lucca on the16th August 1817:“I have bade farewell to my Archduchess. The

squadron set sail yesterday morning around halfpast six.”

Leopoldine had also said farewell to her much-loved sister Marie-Louise, by now elevated toDuchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla as aresult of the Vienna Congress. At that time nei-ther of them as yet had any idea that this was thelast time they would see each other.

Metternich had completed his work, although he repeatedlyhad to intervene when there was trouble in Brazil – if disputes orfinancial problems arose. In fact this was the case only withMikan, and after barely a year the latter returned prematurely toEurope, along with other members of the expedition, some ofwhom were seriously ill. In 1820 he also published a splendidvolume, Delectus faunae et florae brasiliensis (The enjoyment ofthe flora and fauna of Brazil), notable not only for the high qual-ity of its illustrations but also for a whole series of new descrip-


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arrived from Vienna for him to return to Europe (this subse-quently happened twice more). He wrote to his brother that hemust get to the Mato Grosso (like my mother later) and that hewould from then on continue at his own expense. He took outa loan and thereafter sent his collections to England for sale.Whereupon he received permission to continue, along with ade-quate financing, from Vienna. Metternich had without doubtrealised the possible consequences otherwise.

Natterer planned to make his way from Curitiba to the Mato

Grosso with 23 mules, five horses, and four dogs. He had pur-chased two slaves and rented another two. Special ox-hide sackswere made which the mules could carry on one side, with a caskof brandy on the other, for preserving the animals, amphibians,and fishes that were collected. He set off in October 1822 and,travelling via Goiás, reached Cuiabá, today’s capital of MatoGrosso state, in December 1823. The trek was very arduous andlasted more than a year (it took my mother over four weeks bycar through the “green hell”).


tions – including a Metternichia, a tree-like shrub (familySolanaceae).

Leopoldine, who was deeply impressed with the rich nature ofBrazil, wrote to her father on the 26th January 1818 that everyday she made new discoveries in the plant, animal, and mineralkingdoms. And that every morning at eight she rode out hunt-ing with Dom Pedro. She sent back live plants and animals,hides, stuffed birds, minerals, and butterflies – mainly to Marie-Louise and her father. But the scientists didn’t do badly, either.

Donna Leopoldina, as the Portuguese called her, was very active.She had a Viennese Naturalien-Cabinet established at the fortressof São Cristovão – this later developed into the Museo Nacional(the Brazilian National Museum). She was involved in thefounding of the splen-did Jardim Botanico inRio, as well as the ani-mal park at Santa Cruz.But Leopoldine wasnot only a blessing toscience and nature –plant genera andspecies were named inher honour – but alsoan energetic womanwho knew how to gether way, somethingthat had already causedMetternich some con-cern. She took a livelypart in politics andDom Pedro listened toand asked for her opin-ion on difficult ques-tions, as his role asEmperor had not yet gone to his head. She played an importantrole in the elevation of his rank, the liberation of Brazil from thePortuguese motherland, and the coronation of her husband asEmperor in 1822.

The design of the Brazilian flag was her concept (with thesouthern cross in it, only the text: Ordem e Progresso – Order andProgress – was added later). She also earned long-term credit forher sorties into art and culture. Her charitable acts, her socialwork, her trips to the quarter of the poor (where she endeav-oured to help in person) are still remembered today.

Many Brazilian ruas (streets), praças (squares), bairros (parts ofcities), cidades (entire cities), and provincias (provinces) bear hername. Sadly she didn’t even attain her 30th year. On the 11th

December 1826 the talented Empress of Brazil died – apparent-ly of a broken heart. Dom Pedro had forced her to acknowledgehis mistress, Donna Domintila, whom he had ennobled, as thefirst lady of the court and allow her to sit on the throne next tohim.

Meanwhile Natterer had many expeditions behind him andhad despatched large collections from the region around Rio,São Paulo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul back toAustria.

Originally he wanted to be in Mato Grosso by this time, but theBrazilian government refused him access, so Martius and Spixtravelled before him into the paradise of birds, as they termed it.In 1829, along with Dr Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, discoverer

of te 2nd Discus muchlaer (page XXX), a Swissichthyologist who sub-sequently emigrated toAmerica, they publishedin Munich the bookSelecta Genera et SpeciesPiscium quos in Itinereper Brasiliam AnnisMDCCCXVII – MDC-CCXX Jussu et AuspiciisMaximiliani Joseph I.Bavaria Regis Augustissi-mi (Selected genera andspecies of fishes) withnumerous drawings,two of which (of cich-lids) are presented here(right-hand page). Butthey didn’t find any dis-cus.

It is also worth mentioning that this work, which appeared inLatin, listed Spix as the author and describer of new genera andspecies (eg the characiform genus Leporinus and the cichlidspecies Cichla monoculus), although he had already been dead forthree years.

As luck would have it, Natterer also made collections in the RioTieté in São Paulo, in which all life forms except bacteria havenow been extinguished by catastrophic environmental pollution –São Paulo is today in all probability the most heavily populatedcity on Earth, with probably more than 30 million inhabitants.

His son-in-law Julius von Schröckinger-Neudenburg laterdivided Natterer’s travels into 10 sections (see map, page 37). Bythe time of the third (to the Tieté and Curitiba) orders had


Aus Selecta Genera et Species Piscum 1829

Dr. J. B. de Spix, Dr. L. Agassiz,Dr. F.C. Ph. de Martius. Monachii, Typyis C. Wolf. 1829

Aus Selecta Genera et Species Piscum 1829

Dr. J. B. de Spix, Dr. L. Agassiz,Dr. F.C. Ph. de Martius. Monachii, Typyis C. Wolf. 1829

Lobotes ocellatus Tab. LXVIII.

Habitat in Oceano Atlantico(= Astronotus ocellatus)

Cycla Monoculus Tab. LXIII.

Habitat in Mari Brasilianae(=Cichla monoculus)

The two Austrian frigates Austria (left) and Augusta by Thomas Ender (Kuperstichkabinett der Akademie der Bildenden Künsten, Vienna)


The hardships were so great that he fell sick with an acuteinfection of the liver and had to remain there until 1825. Dur-ing this journey he encountered indians for the first time andacquired large quantities of artefacts (like us). The Mundurukúindians made their dance head-dresses, arm-bands, aprons, andmany other items from the feathers of parrots and bare-facedcurassaw (Crax fasciolata, family Cracidae, localy known asmutum – see also page 280). The indians generally kept thesebirds specially for the pur-pose, repeatedly pluckingout their feathers.

Natterer’s sixth journey(from January 1825 toJuly 1829) likewise tookplace under an ill star. InArraial de São Vicente hisfaithful companionSochor fell ill with a verybad fever (undoubtedlymalaria) and died. In thisvillage of 600 souls therewas no doctor, let alonemedications. Then Nat-terer himself sufferedattacks of fever – themalaria had him in itsgrasp as well. He survivedonly thanks to the inter-vention of a miller’s wifenamed Gertrud, whotook him to Vila Bela deSantissima de Trinidade,on the Rio Guaporé,where he was cured.

Natterer stayed in theMato Grosso region andby the fabulous Guaporéuntil July 1829, collectingand making the bulk ofhis fish drawings (two of which can be seen below), includingthat of the piranha species later named after him (Serrasalmusnattereri). Although it is repeatedly stated that there are discus inthe Guaporé, this is not the case. Natterer found no Symphysodonthere, nor have my mother or I during our numerous collectingtrips years later. Discus are nowhere in their range found in thevicinity of rapids or waterfalls, let alone upstream of these obsta-cles. And the Guaporé-Marmoré (the lower Guaporé is some-

times called the Marmoré after it is joined by the left-bank afflu-ent of that name) has more than 20 north of Guajará-Mirim,before, together with the Rio Beni and Rio Abuná, it becomesthe Rio Madeira.

Natterer followed the course of the Rio Guaporé, the centre ofwhich forms the border between Brazil and Bolivia for morethan a thousand kilometres in this region, where it is known asthe Iténez. He successfully negotiated the rapids and the perilous

cataracts at Teotonio onthe Rio Madeira, andreached the village of Bor-ba November 1829.

On his eighth journey(June 1830 to the begin-ning of 1831) he followeddown the Rio Madeirapassing to the south of theIsland Tupinambarana,up the Amazon and theRio Negro upstream toSão José de Marabitanasnear to the border withVenezuela. He surmoun-ted the waterfalls atUaupés (nowadays SãoGabriel da Cachoeira)and on his journey upriv-er went some distance upthree Rio Negro affluents,the Rio Içana, the RioXié, and the Rio Uaupés.(Only the EnglishmanRichard Spruce (1817-1893) managed to travelfurther up the Uaupés, 20years later – see also aquageõgraphia Vol. 11.)

On the way back Nat-terer stopped at Barcelos,

and from this base made the collections of the 9th “section”between 1831 and 1834, in the Rio Negro basin and in the RioBranco upstream as far as Forte São Joaquim. It was during thisperiod that the discus “found its way into his net” – in actual factan indian caught it for him near the mission Moreré (later calledMoreira), but not, I think, with bow and arrow as they usuallydo (see photos and drawing on this page and page 39).

We cannot imagine what Natterer must have thought when he

B L E H E R S D I S C U S 3736 B L E H E R S D I S C U S

Natterer’s route - in red. The maps were prepared at the time and also show the route taken by the botanist Pohl (in black). It is also possible to see(on closer examination) Natterer’s 10 bases (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX & X). The red circle is where Natterer collected the first discus (Symphysodon

discus). The black dotted line shows the border of Brazil at that time. Pará at the mouth of the Amazon = Belém.

IX

X


Natterer’s drawing of the piranha caught in the Rio Guaporé in 1829.

Natterer’s drawing of the flag cichlid,likewise caught in the Rio Guaporé in 1829.

Rudolf Kner described this fish as Serrasalmus nattereri in

Jakob Heckel described this fish as Heros festivus in 1840.


held this unique discus-shaped fish inhis hands. Moreover he never madeany drawing or wrote anything aboutit (or perhaps any relevant paperswere stolen in Belém (see below) orwent up in smoke in the subsequentfire in Vienna – nobody knows).

Be that as it may, one thing is sure –today the “prince of collectors” is atleast as well known in scientific andornamental fish circles worldwide asHerr Sacher among gourmets aroundthe world for his cake. (With theslight difference that the young Sach-er didn’t invest as much time and did-n’t have to undergo any hardships toachieve his fame.) And by the way,Sacher’s cake is today sent all over theworld in boxes, just like live discus!

Natterer had married a Brazilianwoman, Maria de Rêgo, in Barcelos(1831) and she bore him threedaughters. On his tenth and last expe-dition (1834-35), accompanied byhis family, he lost almost all the mate-rial he had collected. Civil war hadbroken out in Pará. The bloodyCabanagem popular uprising was rag-ing in Belém and other parts of Pará.The province had declared indepen-dence from the Portuguese crownpending the proclamation of themajority of Pedro dÀlcântara (PedroI had abdicated in favour of his first-born, fifteen-year-old son PedrodÀlcântara, and a council of regentshad taken control while the successorto the throne remained a minor). Inthe city of Belém, at the mouth of theAmazon, from where Nattererplanned to embark for home, he wasrobbed and lost the bulk of his mate-rial. Even his extensive collection of live animals, destined for theimperial menagerie, fell victim to the plunderers. They devouredthe priceless tapir and other animals on the spot!

Natterer wrote, “...I had to leave all my things to their fate onland with three blacks, I went ashore with the Englishman and

to my house, where I found every-thing in the greatest state of confu-sion; almost all my chests had beenbroken open and the contents scat-tered; everything of value – myclothes, three airguns, eight firearms,pistols, 600 florins, and many otheritems stolen.”

“Almost all the menagerie hadbeen killed apart from a few mon-keys, parrots, and parakeets, includ-ing the tapir, all the turtles, every-thing that was edible. My blacks hadseveral times narrowly escapeddeath. At great risk... every day Ireturned to the house to get the restof my things together and pack, andat night I slept on the corvette.Because of lack of time and porters Ihad to leave some of my thingsbehind, including a large chest withtwo 12-foot sawfishes and otherlarge fishes that I had collected alongthe sea coast during the months ofFebruary and March...”

Luckily for us, the discus wasamong the items rescued and thusput to sea aboard a ship of the Eng-lish navy along with Natterer and hisfamily on 15th September 1835.

After 18 years in Brazil he arrived,along with his wife and three daugh-ters, in Vienna on the 13th August1836 (Leopoldine’s unlucky num-ber). But the uprooting was toomuch for his Brazilian wife. FrauNatterer and two of their daughtersdied. Only Gertrude – the thirddaughter, named after her father’s“saviour” from the Mato Grosso –survived.

The first discus was described byHeckel four years later in his work Johann Natterer’s neueFlussfische Brasilien’s nach den Beobachtungen und Mittheilungendes Entdeckers beschrieben. Erste Abteilung, die Labroiden.(Johann Natterer’s new river fishes from Brazil, described fromthe observations and specimens of the discoverer. Part 1, the


On the opposite page(above) is the mostfamous Brazilianichthyologist, Prof. Her-aldo Britski (left in thephoto, with H. Bleher(with a broken arm)right, visiting theMuseo de Zoologia inSão Paulo after anexpedition to the Ama-zonas), holding a Sym-physydon discus thatwas shot with an indi-an arrow in the RioTrombetas. (A detail isshown on this page,below.) But under nor-mal circumstances theindians never kill discus, as they regardthem as sacred and asymbol of fertility (seeBleher & Linke, 1991a:videoThe World of Discus I), althoughthey have been knownto shoot them with bowand arrow for the whiteman, as can be seen inthe engraving from thebook Selecta Genera etSpecies Piscium (1829). (Howelse were the natural-ists of those times toobtain their material?).On page 38 (below) wesee the holotype ofSymphysodon discusHeckel, 1840. Natterer’specimen which wasused for the descrip-tion of the genus andspecies that remainundisputed to the present day. Unlike somany species, theHeckel discus has notundergone any changein its scientific name,which has remainedunchallenged for morethan 160 years.


ranks of the great ichthyologists through his work on the mon-umental amount of material that the frigate Novara had broughtback in 1859 from her three-year circumnavigation of the world.To assist him in this, the professor of zoology engaged a younglaw student who had changed tack to enter the field of naturalhistory (apparently the fate of allAustrian ichthyologists!). Hisname was Franz Steindachner(1834-1919), and he was des-tined to become one of the bestknown of all ichthyologists inter-nationally. They studied 1,600specimens from 550 species, theirwork subsequently appearing in amajor publication, Reise deröstereichischen Fregatte Novara umdie Erde, a year after Kner’s deathin 1868.

As a result of his outstandingwork, Steindachner was appoint-ed to the post of head of the fishcollections, which had remainedvacant since Heckel’s death. Inthe period from 1859 to 1868 hepublished no less than 55ichthyological works (about 900pages), including one onSternarchogiton nattereri (Stein-dachner, 1868). This was fol-lowed by further species namedin honour of their discoverer,which still remain valid today.In 1876, Corydoras nattereri,Leporinus nattereri, Copella nat-tereri, Achiropsis nattereri, andThalassophryne nattereri. And inthe years that followed,Anchoviella nattereri (Stein-dachner, 1879), Trachydoras nattereri (Steindachner, 1881),Aphyocharax nattereri (Steindachner, 1882), and Farlowella nat-tereri Steindachner, 1910.

Interestingly this extraordinary man made collections in SouthAmerica for the second time in 1903, at the age of 69 (his firstvisit was during the Hassler Expedition, which covered almost allof the New World, in the company of the world-famous ichthy-ologist Jean Louis Rodophe Agassiz (1807-1873), Swiss by birthbut living in America). He didn’t bring any discus back from this

trip – or, if he did, I can find no information on it. What I havediscovered, however, is that he was possibly distantly involvedwith the second discus discovery – earlier than Jobert (see nextpage). But whether or not Steindachner, who at Agassiz’s invita-tion travelled to America in 1868 to study the collections of the

Thayer Expedition, saw any dis-cus there, remains unknown.

THE SECOND DISCUS

Credit for the discovery of thesecond discus has usually beengiven to a Frenchman, ClémentJobert, who fancied himself as anarchitect, although he was really anaturalist and doctor of physiolo-gy. But it now looks as if he was-n’t after all the “second discover-er” of the discus as previouslyassumed.

The famous Thayer Expedition(New York-Brazil-New York,1865-66), financed by theBoston merchant NathanielThayer and led by Louis Agassiz,returned from Brazil with some34,000 fish specimens. The expe-dition had collected at 156 sitesincluding around Ega (= Teffé;both place-names are cited, butthey are one and the same – Tef-fé (nowadays Tefé) was formerlycalled Eda and Ega ), whereAgassiz and his colleagues appar-ently netted green discus at thesite THAYER138 (the labelreads: “LAGO TEFF?; EDA, col-lectors L. Agassiz et al., collectiondate 14 IX-22 X 1865”). Agassiz’s

companions included Jacques Burkhardt (1808-1867) (the manwith the white beard, right), his “personal artist”, who on the 4thOctober 1865 painted an adult green discus (see on page 41),along with a younger specimen which does not yet show the typ-ical red dots, but whose anal fin clearly demonstrates that it islikewise a Green.

These are the first known colour illustrations of a discus. ThusAgassiz and his companions (centre) must have had these fishesin their hands in 1865, at the place where the Rio Tefé enters the


Labroids.) (See also Chapter 2: Heck-el’s work).

Unfortunately the prince of collec-tors didn’t live long after the publica-tion of this work on the cichlids, butdied of a pulmonary embolism on17th June 1843 – very likely the priceof the almost unimaginable hardshipshe had undergone in the Brazilian jun-gle – without having published hismain work on the ornithology of theregion. And, of course, with no ideathat he would still be honoured, albeitposthumously, in his native landtoday.

His fellow-countryman, RudolfKner (1810-1869), was the first toimmortalise Natterer. This son of ahigh-ranking government officialfrom Linz had planned to become adoctor, but his talents as a naturalistwere recognised while he was still atboarding school, at the age of just 15.He nevertheless acceded to the wishesof his father and studied medicine,graduating as a general practitionerand surgeon in 1835. During his stud-ies in Vienna Kner had, however, hadregular contact with the k.k. Natu-ralien-Cabinet, and in particular withJohann Jakob Heckel, helping –unpaid, of course – with the collec-tions. And during this time the gradu-ate in agriculture (against his will) andthe doctor (against his will) becameclose friends (See Chapter 2: Heckel’swork).

In the same year that Nattererreturned from Brazil, Kner even tookup a position as assistant to Heckel atthe royal museum, on a salary thatwas, as he said, “...zum Leben zu wenig,zum Sterben zu viel” (too little to liveon, but too much to die on). In 1840,when Heckel’s work was published,they made a collecting trip to Dalma-tia to investigate the riverine fish fau-

na. Hardly had they returned whenKner was invited to take up the post ofProfessor of Natural History and Agri-culture at the University of Lemberg.But his new position made no differ-ence to his attachment to ichthyologyand his friendship with his mentor,Heckel. Far from it. Kner did the firstgood drawing (left) of Natterer’sremarkable discus in 1842 - Heckelhad provided only a rough sketch withhis description (page 135). Kner’sdrawing was the first reasonably accu-rate illustration of the species Sym-physodon discus.

Eight years later Kner returned toVienna and in 1849 took up the new-ly created chair of zoology at ViennaUniversity. From then on he againhad access to the ichthyological collec-tions and began to work on the partswith which he was most familiar andthe “Schätze von Johann Natterer”(treasures of Johann Natterer) whichhad thus far remained unstudied(apart from Heckel’s work).

First of all he published Die Panzer-welse des k.k. Hof-Naturalien-Cabineteszu Wien (1853), which was followedby Die Hypostomiden – Zweite Haupt-gruppe der Panzerfische (1854), whichcontained numerous new descriptionsand remains the standard work onthese catfishes to the present day.

After several publications on SouthAmerican catfishes, following Heckel’sdeath in 1857 Kner worked on Nat-terer’s characins, immortalizing the“prince” for the first time with thepiranha species most commonly kepttoday, Pygocentrus nattereri Kner 1858.He described two new genera (Rhytio-dus and Bryconops) and a total of 36new species, including Chalceus opali-nus, which was subsequently recate-gorised as Brycon nattereri Günther1864 (ex Kner). Kner then joined the


Rudolf Kner, the well-known Austrian ichthyologist (top), paintedthe first Heckel discus (S. discus) (above) in 1842. Meanwhile in 1865, during the Thayer Expedition, J. Burkhardt painted thefirst green discus (plus a juvenile) (right-hand page), although

he didn’t know it was a Green at the time.

FIRST DISCOVERY FIRST DISCOVERY – THE SECOND DISSCUS

quently studied by Pellegrinwere collected at Santarém(1), Teffé (2), and Calderõn(1). A further specimen col-lected at Barra do Rio Negro(= S. discus), was not includ-ed in Pellegrin’s description.

However, during myresearches into Jobert (withthe aid of the world-famouscharacin expert JacquesGéry) I came across a num-ber of very interesting storiesthat I would like to relatebriefly here.

Dr. Clément Jobert wasinterested in architecture (asa hobby?), and decided tobuild a miniature version ofthe Chateau de Versailles atTefé, on the edge of LagoTefé, right in the middle ofwhat was then the deepestBrazilian jungle. Apparentlythe mind-blowing heat andalmost 100% humidityproved too much for him(and perhaps led to his earlydeath (all traces of him dis-appear after 1881), the fateof so many explorers beforeand after him). Be that as itmay, he did in fact start totranslate his dream into real-ity, as evidenced by the pres-ence on the lake shore eventoday of frescos and palatialsteps leading up to the Pre-fecture. And the originalstructure of the chateau itself– or, rather, its beginnings –is still standing, and has beenoccupied by Jesuits for morethan 100 years. It was thefirst massive (stone) buildingby the lake, and the stonemust have been brought

from far away bylancha - there is(was) nothing butsand and jungle inthe vicinity of Tefé.Traces of the fabu-lous castle can stillbe seen in thesculptures hewnfrom stone.

The “architect” – as I willcall him – was, however, alsointerested in somethingquite different: the produc-tion of the curare poison ofthe Tikuna indians (alsowritten as Ticuna, Tecuna, orTukuna). He visited thistribe in the vicinity ofTabatinga, where he alsofound a discus – a Blue? –which Pellegrin described 25years later as var. aequifascia-ta, as mentioned above (butthis specimen cannot befound anywhere – see Chap-ter 2: Pellegrin’s description).

Apropos of which, it isinteresting to note that Har-ald Schultz is also said tohave caught the so-called“Blue discus” at Tabatinga –albeit some 80 years later.Moreover Schultz too soughtout this indian tribe, onlysomewhat further to thenorth-east, and made a filmabout it (see also discoveriesin the 20th century, below).

Back in Belém de Pará fol-lowing his researches inTabatinga, Jobert wrote asfollows to French toxicolo-gists Sur la préparation ducurare (on the preparation ofcurare), describing in detailhow the Tecuna indians (as


lake of the same name, without realis-ing that they were a second species.

Burkhardt painted some 2000 fishesin watercolours. These detailed paint-ings remained unpublished and aftermany years were passed to the ichthy-ologist George S. Myers around 1940,with the words “...maybe you can findsomething interesting among thesepaintings, otherwise I am sure youhave a fire once in a while in Califor-nia...” And it was not until a few yearsago that they resurfaced in Cam-bridge, Massachusets (in the Museumof Comparative Zoology at HarvardUniversity, where most of the fishesfrom the Thayer Expedition arestored). His discus painting can nowbe displayed for the first time in thisbook.

Jobert, meanwhile, netted a furthertwo green discus some 13 years later,in the same place (or, at least, some-where around Lago Tefé), and alsocollected additional specimens else-where (the precise number is in ques-tion – see Chapter 2: Pellegrin’s descrip-tion).

Unfortunately not very much isknown about Dr. Clément Jobert.Even in his birthplace of Lyon thereare today no records to be found of hisbirth or death. There is no biography,and the Internet has no entries underhis name (except under curare, seebelow), although he was a well-knownphysiologist. All that remains is anumber of his works, publishedbetween 1870-1881, in museumlibraries.

Jobert studied the sensory organs ofvarious animals (mainly those ofmammals, including humans) from1870 to 1876 and the respiratoryorgans of terrestrial crabs (1875). Hepublished material on the opticalorgans of cirrhipeds (with Georges

Pochet in 1876); and, after (or dur-ing?) his time in Brazil, on the curarepoison (1878) and diseases affectingBrazilian coffee pickers (1878). Healso researched the evolution of insectgenera (1881). But he wrote onlythree papers on fishes: in 1870, on theevolution of their sensory organs; in1877 on the evolution of their respira-tory systems; and in 1878 on theanatomical and physiological factorsthat led to the evolution of the respi-ratory organs in fishes. He undertookone or more (?) research expeditionsto Brazil in the 1870s and made col-lections in cooperation with theBrazilian government. He travelled toRio Grande do Sul and the mysteri-ous Serra do Estrello (= Mountains ofthe Stars, not found on any map, butpossibly a contemporary name for themountains around Petropolis), bring-ing back inter alia a new species ofcharacin which his fellow-country-man Pellegrin described in 1909,naming a new subgenus after its dis-coverer – Characidium (Jobertina)interruptum. But more of that later.

However, he spent the longest timein the Amazon region, from which hebrought back in 1878 what M. LeónVaillant described in 1880 as a mag-nifique collection (magnificent collec-tion). And this included three or fourspecimens of discus which Pellegrindescribed in 1904 as Symphysodon dis-cus Heckel var. aequifasciata var. nov.(see Chapter 2: Pellegrin’s Description).

Jobert collected mainly (or exclusive-ly) in seven places: in Pará (= Belém)and on the island of Marajó; in themouth region of the Xingu; aroundSantarém; Manaos and Barra do RioNegro (= Manaus); around Teffé (=Tefé); Tonantins (on the Solimões);and in Calderõn (= Calderão orTabatinga). The four discus subse-


Jobert, the “second” discoverer of the discus – the “architect” – started building aresidence resembling the palace of Versailles on the shore of Lago Tefé, a structure full

of wonderful, lavish, and artistic ideas.Today only the walls and various sculpturesremain (top, right, & centre).The palace built by the “Sun King” Louis XIV in 1678 was the

pattern for many others, for example King Ludovic II’s Linderhof, Frederick the Great ofPrussia’s Sans Souci in Potsdam, and Prince Miklós Esterházy’s “Hungarian Versailles",

Fertõd. Their names became immortalised - but Jobert is remembered only in the names of a few fishes such as Jobertina (above).

THE SECOND DISSCUS THE SECOND DISSCUS


he calls them) produce the curare poison:“Le Dr Jobert a pu faire préparer devant lui

l’un des meilleurs curares américains, celui desIndiens Tecunas, au Calderão (Brésil), nonloin de la frontiére péruvienne. Cést un poi-son purement végétal.

Les éléments principaux de la préparationsont:

1° LÚrari uva, plante grimpante, du typedes Strychnées (peut-être le Strychnos castal-nae de M. de Weddell);

2° LÉko ou Pani du Maharão, plantegrimpante offrant les caractéres des Menisper-macées (peut-être le Cocculus toniferus de M.de Weddell).

Les éléments acessoires sont:3° Une Aroïdée, le Taja; 4° LÉoné ou Mucura-ea-ha (Didelphys

cancrivora?), qui a le port dúne Amaran-tacée);

5° Trois Pipéracées (du genre Artanthe?)6° Le Tau-ma-gere ou Langue de Toucan.Ces plants ont été photographiées par M.

Jobert, qui en rapportera des échantillons enEurope et pourra en donner une détermina-tion plus exacte.

Voici comment les Indiens procédèrent à lapréparation du poison:

Ils râclèrent la première pour écorce, fortmince, des rameaux les plus développés delÚrari et de lÉko, et mélangèrent ces râpuresdans la proportion de 4 parties de la premièrepour 1 partie de la seconde.

Ce mélange, pétri la main, placé ensuitedans un entonnoir en feuille de palmier, futépuisé à léau froide, quón reversa sept ouhuit fois. Le liquide prit alors une teinterouge. LÍndien le fit bouillir avec des frag-ments de tige de Taja et de Mucura, pendantenviron six heures, jusquá lámener à uneconsistance èpaisse. On ajouta à ce liquide larâpure des ... ?

(“Dr Jobert was able to observe the prepa-ration of several American curares, those ofthe Tecuna indians at Calderão (Brazil),not far from the frontier with Peru. Curareis a strictly vegetable poison.

The main ingredients in its preparation areas follows:

1. The Urari uva, a climbing plant of thenightshade type (perhaps the Strychnos castal-nae of M. de Weddell);

2. The Eko or Pani du Maharão, a climbingplant exhibiting the characteristics of theMenispermaceae (perhaps the Cocculustoniferus of M. de Weddell).

The secondary ingredients are as follows:3. An aroid, the Taja;4. The Eoné or Mucura-ea-ha (Didelphys

cancrivora?), which has the habit of the Ama-rantaceae);

5. Three Piperaceae (genus Artanthe?)6. The Tau-ma-gere or Langue de Toucan.These plants were photographed by M.

Jobert, who brought samples back to Europeand was thus able to provide a more precisedetermination.

Here is the way the indians prepare the poi-son:

First of all they finely scrape the mostdeveloped stems of the Urari and the Eko inorder to obtain their bark, which is thenmixed in the ratio of four parts of the formerto one part of the latter.

This mixture is kneaded by hand and thenplaced in a funnel made from a palm leaf andsqueezed out into cold water, which is passedthrough seven or eight times. The liquidthereby takes on a red colour. The indianboils pieces of Taja and Mucura stem in thisliquid for about six hours until a thick con-sistency is achieved. The next ingredient tobe added to the liquid is the bark of the...”(The text ends at this point.))

Jobert was in all probability the first toreveal the millennia-old secret of the indians– the composition of the poison with manynames – different tribes or dialects variouslypronounce it woorari, woorara, curari, curu-ru, ourari, wourali, or similar.

And this brings me to the European dis-coverer of this indian arrow-poison, Sir Wal-ter Ralegh (sometimes spelt Raleigh) (1552-1618). This courtier, poet, explorer, and

adventurer travelled the Orinoco on two occasions, in search of“El Dorado”. As early as 1595 he brought the poison (but notEldorado!) back from his first expedition. This remarkable “all-rounder”, a knight of noble blood and long-time favourite ofQueen Elizabeth I as well as Captain of her Royal Guard (andlover?), was in 1592 impris-oned by Her Majesty in theTower of London when shelearnt of his secret marriageto Elizabeth Throckmorton,a maid of honour at thecourt. However, he wassoon released again toresolve a dispute over a cap-tured carraque (a Portuguesegalleon) filled with treasure– only he could deal withthe matter, as the expeditionhad been planned by him.And in 1595 he began hisquest for El Dorado. The fol-lowing year, after returning,without having found hisgoal, with just a few piecesof gold and the arrow poi-son, he published his firstbook, Discovery of Guiana,in which he wrote as followson the subject:

“The fourth are called Aro-ras, and are as black asnegroes, but have smoothhair; and these are veryvaliant, or rather desperate,people, and have the moststrong poison on theirarrows, and most dangerous,of all nations, of which I willspeak somewhat, being adigression not unnecessary.

There was nothing where-of I was more curious thanto find out the true remediesof these poisoned arrows.For besides the mortality ofthe wound they make, theparty shot endureth the

most insufferable torment in the world, and abideth a most uglyand lamentable death, sometimes dying stark mad, sometimestheir bowels breaking out of their bellies; which are presently dis-coloured as black as pitch, and so unsavory as no man canendure to cure or to attend them.

And it is more strange toknow that in all this timethere was never Spaniard,either by gift or torment,that could attain to the trueknowledge of the cure,although they have martyredand put to invented torture Iknow not how many ofthem. But everyone of theseIndians know it not, no, notone among thousands, buttheir soothsayers and priests,who do conceal it, and onlyteach it but from the fatherto the son.”

Sir Walter never found outeither. Around 1600 he wasproclaimed Governor of Jer-sey, but his luck was runningout. Because of politicalunrest over Essex’s purportedtreason and execution, andbecause his enemies claimedhe was against the accessionof James I (in 1603), he fellfrom favour. He wasremoved from office,stripped of his property, andaccused – without any actu-al proof – of plotting treasonwith Spain. In addition hehad supposedly plotted tokill the king and enthroneArabella Stuart in his place.But he was reprieved fromthe scaffold and instead sentback to the Tower. Here hedevoted himself to scienceand literature, and began hisnever completed History ofthe World.


Top: a woodcut dating from 1848 showing Ticuna indian women, in typical costume,dancing. Jobert visited the Ticuna at Calderão – which was also where he collected a

discus and studied the curare poison in which the indians dipped their blow-pipe darts inorder to kill their prey (above). Jobert established that they derived the poison from

Strychnos castalnae, Cocculus toxiferus, and Didelphys cancrivora, a plant of the arumfamily they called taja , and three species of Piperaceae (Artanthe spp.). They extracted

the sap from these plants (without the bark) and boiled it in water (sometimes mixed withpoison from snakes, ants, and frogs) for 2 days, and then let it dry out.

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CChhaarrlleess MMaarriiee ddee llaaCCoonnddaammiinnee ((11770011--11777744))



Ralegh was released in 1616 and shortly thereafter headed offto the Orinoco again, in search of gold. He was warned to leavethe Spanish colonists in peace. This expedition was blessed withneither gold nor discus (of course, there are no Symphysodon inthe Orinoco system – see Chapter 3: Distribution), and hence afailure. But his companion, Laurence Kemys, captured a Span-ish settlement, and after Ralegh returned to his native land theSpanish ambadassor asked the English crown to punish him (forsomething that he hadn’t done).

Before he was finally executed at the Tower of London in 1618,Ralegh fingered the headsman’s axe and declared, “This is asharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases.” It appearshis last thoughts were of curare. Perhaps he was thinking aboutthe contrast of curare being a slow painful death...

Unusually for those days,his wife was allowed toclaim his head, which shehad embalmed and keptconstantly with her for 29years, until her own death.

Before returning to Jobert,the second discoverer, Iwould like to make anotherdigression, this time on avery well-known French-man, de la Condamine, anofficer with a passion for thelathe. He was a bit touched– as Jobert with his Ver-sailles – constantly preoccu-pied with the possibility ofcontrolling and thusautomating the turningprocess by fitting templatesto the lathe, for example to produce portrait medallions. Tradi-tion has it that he invented an apparatus for mass-producingcameos using portrait templates. He also developed, inter alia, atechnique for the automated engraving of patterns on flat sur-faces. His lectures on his work to the French Academy of Sci-ences are preserved in the annals of the Academy.

Charles Marie de la Condamine (1701-1774), was, however,primarily a mathematician, physicist, explorer, and geographer.La Condamine was sent to Ecuador in 1735 to measure theEarth at the Equator. He was the first European to make a sci-entific study of the Amazon region (he even collected about 30fish species in Lago Tefé – but no discus) and he mapped theAmazon by following it by raft from the Andes to its mouth. La

Condamine had already made adventurous expeditions to Alge-ria, Alexandria, Palestine, Cyprus, and Constantinople.

In Europe at that time learned people were still debatingwhether the polar circumference of the Earth was greater thanthe equatorial. The King of France and the French Royal Acad-emy of Sciences had commissioned two expeditions in order toanswer this question. One was shipped to Lapland (under theleadership of the Swedish physicist Anders Celsius) and the sec-ond to Ecuador. La Condamine initially set off with the secondgroup, along with Louis Godin and the mathematician PierreBouguer.

When, in 1735, they landed in Colombia they had to cross theIsthmus of Panama on foot in order to sail on to Ecuador. LaCondamine marched through the rainforest with Pedro Vin-

cente Maldonado, the localGovernor and a mathemati-cian. They sailed up the riv-er Esmeraldas and climbedover the Andes, reachingQuito, in Ecuador, on the4th June, 1736, and com-pleting all their measure-ments by 1739. When thenews came from Laplandthat the polar survey wasfinished and had provedthat the Earth was flattenedat the poles, La Condaminedecided to remain in SouthAmerica. For an additionalfour years he explored, per-formed scientific research,and mapped part of theAndes and the Amazon,

finally returning to France in 1745. His 10 year adventure was documented in his Journal du Voy-

age fait par l’ordre du Roi á l’equateur, published in 1751, inwhich he also mentions his experiences with curare. La Con-damine also originated the idea of vaccination against smallpox(later developed by Edward Jenner), which he had suffered as achild.

I am telling the story of these adventurous pioneers here notjust because they by and large achieved something unique, butalso because, like so many, they failed to receive the laurels theyhad earned – far from it. And because they performed a certainamount of scientific research, far in advance of everyone else,even though neither of them brought back discus (although La

Condamine did follow the“discus route” for manyyears). Or maybe they didand we simply don’t knowit...

We do know, however,that Natterer’s was the firstrecorded discovery – albeitjust one individual. Andalmost 30 years later Agassizand his companions weresecond. But Jobert´s threeor four specimens were theones described as the sec-ond (sub)species, althoughhe was the third to collectdiscus.

In fact the “architect” didnot receive the honour hedeserved until after hisdeath (it is well known thatpeople often do not becomefamous until they are dead).In 1880 M. Léon Vaillantpublished on the freshwaterrays that Jobert had collect-ed in Calderõn; on speciesof “Siluridae” – including aspecies that he namedOtocinclus joberti after itscollector (the species waslater transferred to thegenus Hypoptopoma); andmany more – but I do notknow whether Jobert everknew of this. Then, in1902, Pellegrin wrote alengthy paper on the cich-lids from Jobert’s collection(Cichlidés du Bresil rapportéspar M. Jobert), in which hementioned the Symphysodondiscus Heckel it included,without going into furtherdetail. This was, however,rectified two years laterwhen, as already men-

tioned, he described thesefishes as a new variety,aequifasciata. And in 1909he published a work on acharacin of the familyCharacidae from the Serrado Estrello, which hedescribed as Characidium(Jobertina) interruptum.The crowning accoladecame in 1977 when JacquesGéry elevated the subgenusto generic status. Though,of course, Jobert was nolonger around to know ofthis, or indeed that in 1993and later the name was dis-puted and synonymised bysome authors. But that isscience (or rather, scien-tists).

Dr. Clément Jobert’s dis-cus have now gone to theireternal home in the vaultsbeneath the Musée d´His-toire Naturelle de Paris, inFrance, where they restalongside numerous othercichlids, including Ptero-phyllum altum, likewisedescribed by Pellegrin in1904 – which, however, hasnever been found syntopicwith discus in nature.


The three discus shown here are the original specimens that Jobert collected in 1878 (therewas supposedly also a fourth specimen from Calderón).The fish on the left-hand page has

the locality given as Santarém (Nr. 02-130[1]) – it is quite clearly a blue discus! The specimens above came from Teffé (02-134-135[2]) and are definitely greens.The adult

fish (top) exhibits the typical pattern of markings in the anal fin, and the appreciably smallerspecimen from Teffé (above) as yet has no markings, as is typical in Tefé wild-caughts;

they first appear at an age of 8-12 months – often even later.


Documents

The History of Discus Fishes - USPdocentes.esalq.usp.br/sbn/classics/jobert2discus.pdf · The History of Discus Fishes ... His fish was later (1840) described as Symphysodon discus