Augustin Pyrame de Candolle

Biography

He resulted from a family calvinist of Provence which having fled religious persecutions of the 16th century expatria. Come in Paris at 18 years to study medicine, it took the taste of botany during Rene Desfontaines (1750-1831), gave as of 1799 a Histoire Plantarum Succulentarum ( Histoire of the fatty plants ), and in 1802 its Astragalogia , it published soon after a Essai on the medical properties of the plants , helped Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) to remelt the French Flore (1803 - 1815). In 1804, it obtains its title of doctor of medicine to the Faculté of Paris; its thesis relates to the medical properties of the plants.

It accepted in 1806 the mission of traversing all the Empire to recognize the state of the Agriculture; published in its return three beautiful reports/ratios on this subject (in the Mémoires of the Société of agriculture , 1807 - 1813). With died from Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (1761-1807), it obtains the pulpit of botany to the Medical college of Montpellier. In 1813, it makes appear its elementary Théorie of botany , its masterpiece: it there taught the natural reports/ratios that between them the various parts of the plant have and analyzed the value of each one of these parts.

Persecuted in 1815 to have accepted during the Hundred Days the functions of vice-chancellor of the Academy of Montpellier, the Restauration obliges it to leave the France and it regains Geneva in 1816. Its city creates a pulpit of natural history to him, with the first Botanical garden of the city, in the Parc of the Bastions, and was elected member of the sovereign council (cantonal Parliament). Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817-1891) was one of its students.

He undertook in 1818 a titanic work: to give the description of all the known plants, and published the first two parts of this great work ( Regni vegetabilis systema naturale , 1818 - 1821); but this publication, conceived on too vast proportions, not having been able to continue itself, it included it in a work more shortened, Prodromus regni vegetabilis , continued after its death by his/her son Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle (1806-1893) (14 vol. in-8, 1824 - 1862). It worked there until its death. This immense work describes 90.000 plants.

One still owes him Vorganbgraphie (2 vol. in-8, 1827) and the vegetable Physiologie {3 vol. in-8, 1832), which, with the elementary Théorie . In addition to these various works, De Candolle gave a great number of memories and detached articles, among which one notices his Expériences relating to the influence of the light on the plants and his botanical Géographie . Attempting to discover the intimate laws, it followed the bodies of the plants in all their transformations, and explained the apparent anomalies; it made triumph the natural method definitively and pushed classification as far as possible: it changed at the end of its career the number of the known species to 80.000. De Candolle was associated foreigner of the Institut of France. Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1794-1867) pronounced his Éloge with the Academy of Science, 1842. It left itself of the Mémoires on its life. He is prize winner of the Royal Medal in 1833 for his work of vegetable Physiologie.

Source

Bibliographical orientation

Its Memories and Souvenirs (1778-1841) were republished by Jean-Daniel Candaux, Jean-Marc Drouin, Patrick Bungener and Rene Sigrist in 2004 in the collection Bibliothèque of history of sciences at Georg Éditeur: xv + 591 p. ISBN 2-8257-0832-1. The edition is preceded by a very useful introduction and is enriched by an index. An invaluable system of notes makes it possible to replace the very many names quoted by Candolle.
the Voyage of Tarbes, 1807, First great crossing of the Pyrenees, on a journey in the South of France , Newspaper and letters with Fanny transcribed, annotated and presented by Mr. Alain Bourneton, first edition, Loubatières, the Portet-on-Garonne, 1999, ISBN 2-86266-297-2

Internal bonds

Classification of traditional Candolle
Classification

External bonds

Biography in the '' historical Dictionnaire of Switzerland ''
gallica.bnf.fr scannées Versions its works

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