KÆMPFER, ENGELBERT, was born in 1651 at Lemgow, in Westphalia. After studying in several towns, he went to Dantzic, where he gave the first public specimen of his proficiency, in a dissertation De Majestatis Divisione. He then went to Thorn, and thence proceeded to the university of Cracow, where he took his degree of doctor in philosophy; after which he went to Königsberg in Prussia, and staid there four years. He next travelled into Sweden, where he soon began to make a figure, and was appointed secretary of the embassy to the sultan of Persia. He set out from Stockholm with the presents for that emperor, and went through Aaland, Finland, and Ingermanland, to Narva, where he met Mr Fabricius the ambassador, who had been ordered to take Moscow in his way. The ambassador having ended his negotiations at the Russian court, set out for Persia. During their stay two years at Isphahan, Dr Kæmpfer, whose curious and inquisitive disposition suffered nothing to escape him unobserved, took all the advantage possible of remaining so long in the capital of the Persian empire. When, towards the close of 1685, the ambassador prepared to return into Europe, Dr Kæmpfer chose rather to enter into the service of the Dutch East India Company, in quality of chief surgeon to the fleet, then cruising in the Persian Gulf. He went on board the fleet, which, after touching at many Dutch settlements, reached Batavia in September 1689. Dr Kæmpfer here applied himself chiefly to natural history. From Batavia he set out for Japan, in quality of physician to the embassy which the Dutch East India Company send once a year to the Japanese court. He quitted Japan to return to Europe in 1692. In 1694 he took his degree of doctor of physic at Leyden; on which occasion he communicated, in what are called Inaugural Theses, ten very singular and curious observations made by him in foreign countries. He intended to digest his memoirs into proper order, but was prevented by being made physician to the Count la Lippe. He died in 1716. His principal works are, 1. Amanitates Exoticae, in 4to, a work including many curious and useful particulars in relation to the civil and natural history of the countries through which he passed; 2. Herbarium Ultra-Gangeticum; 3. The History of Japan, in German, for which the public is indebted to Sir Hans Sloane, who purchased for a considerable sum of money all our author's curiosities, both natural and artificial, as likewise all his drawings and manuscript memoirs, and prevailed on Dr Scheuchzer to translate the Japanese history into English.