Jesuit missionary and pharmacist who collected animals and plants in the 17th century Philippines. A Moravian, Kamel travelled to the Marianas in 1683 before settling in the Spanish colony of Manila in 1688, where he established a pharmacy at the Jesuit College and provided free treatment for the city's poor. He also planted a garden, filled with rare and medicinal plants.
As well as his missionary work Kamel spent much time studying the natural history of the islands, sending his observations for publication in the Royal Society of London Transactions. His specimens, drawings and manuscripts are now in the Sloane Collections at the Natural History Museum. His herbarium, Hortus Siccus Asiaticus Plantarum, is the oldest collection of Philippine plants in existence.
Kamel's major work on the plants of the Philippines was Herbarium aliarumque stirpium in insula Luzone Philippinarum, describing herbs and medicinal plants from the island of Luzon. It appeared as an appendix to John Ray's Historia Plantarum in 1704. He is also known as Camel or Camellus and the attractive genus of flowering shrubs, Camellia, was named in his honour by Linnaeus. Kamel remained in the Philippines until his death.
Sources:
R.A. Reyes, 2009, "Botany and zoology in the late seventeenth-century Philippines: the work of Georg Josef Camel SJ (1661-1706)", Archives of Natural History, 36(2): 262-276
E. Spillane, 1908, "George Joseph Camel", The Catholic Encyclopedia, online edn:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03216b.htm, accessed 9 September 2010.
