Genus Youngia

For Edward Young (1683–1765), English poet and dramatist best remembered for his poem ‘Night-Thoughts’. He obtained a doctorate from Oxford University in cannon law and wrote a number of highly acclaimed satires. In 1728, he became a royal chaplin. And for Thomas Young (1773–1829), English polymath, who at aged 14 had a familiarity with 14 languages. He studied medicine at the universities of London and Edinburgh, and obtained a doctorate in physics at Göttingen. During his career he was a doctor, professor of natural philosophy, a member of the French and Swedish Academy of Sciences, and made discoveries in the fields of wave theory of light, elasticity, vision and colour theory, surface tension, medicine and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The author Cassine wrote: [Named after] ‘deux Anglais célèbres, l’un comme poète, l’autre comme physicien,’ (two English celebrities, the one a poet, the other a physician) (Youngia Cassini, Ann. Sci. Nat. (Paris). 23: 88. 1831).