Xavier Mertz

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Xavier Guillaume Mertz (1883-1913) was a Swiss explorer, principally famous for his adventures in the Antarctic. He is also the first person whose cause of death was documented as ''Vitamin A poisoning''. Mertz was born in Basle, Switzerland. He graduated from the University of Leipzig and University of Berne, earning degrees in law. He won the ski-running championship of Switzerland and proved himself an excellent mountaineer. Mertz became a member of the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition under the leadership of Douglas Mawson and company of Lieutenant B. E. S. Ninnis. The expedition''s goal was to produce accurate, scientific maps from the Oates Coast to the Queen Mary Coast in Antarctica. At the expedition''s main base in Adelie Land, Mertz cared for the Greenland sled dogs.... Mehr