German naturalist and physician. Dr Wislizenus was born in Schwarzburg-Rudlstadt, the son a pastor, but was orphaned at an early age. His universities studies were interrupted when he was forced to flee to Switzerland in 1833 after taking part in the student uprising at Frankfurt-am-Main. From Zürich, he went to Paris to study in the hospitals and in 1835 emigrated to the United States, settling in St Louis, Missouri, where he shared a medical practice with George Englemann. In 1839 he travelled the Oregon Trail with a party of fur traders bound for Fort Hall. He later went to Mexico, where his involvement in the war in Chihuahua led to his being exiled to the town of Cusihuiriachi until he was rescued by Colonel Doniphan's army in 1847. He moved with the army to New Orleans, after which he returned to St Louis. During his time in Cusihuiriachi he made extensive collections of plants. His travel accounts were later published as Journey to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1839 (first published in German in 1840, it was translated by his son into English and published in 1912) and Memoirs of a Tour of Northern Mexico (1848).

Sources:
R.E. Schlueter, 1938, "Frederick Adolphus Wislizenus (1810-1889), Pioneer Meteorologist, Physician and Natural Scientist", Isis, 28(1): 38-52.