Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the

Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

's great work, the ''

Histoire Naturelle The ''Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi'' (; en, Natural History, General and Particular, with a Description of the King's Cabinet, italic=yes) is an encyclopaedic collection of 36 large (qu ...

''.

Biography

Lacépède was born at

Agen The commune of Agen (, ; ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. Geography The city of Agen lies in the southwestern department ...

Guienne Guyenne or Guienne (, ; oc, Guiana ) was an old French province which corresponded roughly to the Roman province of '' Aquitania Secunda'' and the archdiocese of Bordeaux. The name "Guyenne" comes from ''Aguyenne'', a popular transformation o ...

. His education was carefully conducted by his father, and the early perusal of Buffon's Natural History ('' Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière'') awakened his interest in that branch of study, which absorbed his chief attention. His leisure he devoted to music, in which, besides becoming a good performer on the piano and organ, he acquired considerable mastery of composition, two of his operas (which were never published) meeting with the high approval of

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

; in 1781–1785 he also brought out in two volumes his ''Poétique de la musique''. Meantime he wrote two treatises, ''Essai sur l'électricité'' (1781) and ''Physique générale et particulière'' (1782–1784), which gained him the friendship of Buffon, who in 1785 appointed him subdemonstrator in the Jardin du Roi, and proposed that he continue Buffon's ''Histoire naturelle''. This continuation was published under the titles ''Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents''. ''Tome premier'' (1788) and ''Histoire naturelle des ''serpents''. Tome second'' (1789). Paris 75005 Grande Galerie de l'Evolution 20070804

Paris 75005 Grande Galerie de l'Evolution 20070804

After the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

Lacépède became a member of the Legislative Assembly, but during the Reign of Terror he left Paris, his life having become endangered by his disapproval of the

massacres A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

. When the Jardin du Roi was reorganised as the Jardin des Plantes and as the

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

1793 The French Republic introduced the French Revolutionary Calendar starting with the year I. Events January–June * January 7 – The Ebel riot occurs in Sweden. * January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fl ...

, Lacépède was appointed to the chair allocated to the study of reptiles and

fishes Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

. In 1798, he published the first volume of ''Histoire naturelle des poissons'', the fifth volume appearing in 1803, and in 1804 appeared his ''Histoire des cétacées''. From this period until his death the part he took in politics prevented him making any further contribution of importance to science. In 1799, he became a senator, in 1801 president of the senate (a role he also fulfilled in 1807–08 and 1811–13), in 1803 grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor, in 1804 minister of state, and at the Bourbon Restoration in 1819 he was created a peer of France. He died at

Épinay-sur-Seine Épinay-sur-Seine (, literally ''Épinay on Seine'') is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The church of Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne d'Enghien, designed by Paul Tournon, may be fo ...

. During the latter part of his life he wrote ''Histoire générale physique et civile de l'Europe'', published posthumously in 18 volumes, 1826. David d'Angers - Lacepede

He was elected perpetual secretary of the French Academy of Sciences at the

Institute of France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...

in 1796, a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1806 and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1812. Lacépède was initiated into

freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

at 22 years old at

Les Neuf Sœurs La Loge des Neuf Sœurs (; The Nine Sisters), established in Paris in 1776, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution. A "Société des Neuf Sœ ...

lodge in Paris, by

Jérôme Lalande Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (; 11 July 1732 – 4 April 1807) was a French astronomer, freemason and writer. Biography Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse (now in the département of Ain) to Pierre Lefrançois and Marie‐Anne‐Ga ...

the worshipfull master himself, who wanted a naturalist for his prestigious lodge. In 1785, Lacépède created his own lodge : "Les Frères Initiés". After the Revolution, he helped Cambacérès to rebuild a French freemasonry submitted to the Emperor, and joined "Saint-Napoléon" lodge where General Kellermann was worshipfull master. He finished his masonic life as dignitary of the Suprême Conseil de France. *

Evolution

Lacépède was an early

evolutionary Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

thinker. He argued for the

transmutation of species Transmutation of species and transformism are unproven 18th and 19th-century evolutionary ideas about the change of one species into another that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The French ''Transformisme'' was a term used ...

. He believed that species change over time and may go extinct from geological cataclysms or become "metamorphosed" into new species. In his book ''Histoire naturelle des poissons'', he wrote:

"The species can undergo such a large number of modifications in its forms and qualities, that without losing its vital capacity, it may be, by its latest conformation and properties, farther removed from its original state than from a different species: it is in that case metamorphosed into a new species."

Tributes

Lacepede Bay Lacepede Bay (french: Baie Lacépède) is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south-east coast about northwest of Mount Gambier and about southeast of Adelaide. It was named in 1802 by the Baudin expedit ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, and the

Lacepede Islands The Lacepede Islands, sometimes referred to simply as the Lacepedes, are a group of four islands lying off the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley coast of Western Australia, about north of Broome, Western Australia, Broome. They are a ...

off the northern coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, are named after him. * The street Rue Lacépède near the Jardin des Plantes and the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

was named after him. * A

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of gecko

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

, ''

Phelsuma cepediana The blue-tailed day gecko (''Phelsuma cepediana'') is a diurnal species of gecko, a lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to the island Mauritius. It typically inhabits warm and humid places and dwells on different trees an ...

'', commonly known as the blue-tailed day gecko, is named in his honour.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Lacépède", p. 149).

Works

*''Les ages de la nature et histoire de l'espèce humaine.'' Paris 1830 p.m. *''Histoire naturelle de l'homme.'' Pitois-Le Vrault, Paris 1827 p.m. *
Histoire générale, physique et civile de l'Europe.
' Cellot, Mame, Delaunay-Vallée & de Mat, Paris, Brüssel 1826 p.m. *''Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipares, serpents, poissons et cétacées.'' Eymery, Paris 1825. *''Histoire naturelle des cétacées.'' Plassan, Paris 1804. *''Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Dolomieu.'' Bossange, Paris 1802. *''La menagerie du Museum national d'histoire naturelle.'' Miger, Paris 1801–04. *''Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours de zoologie.'' Plassan, Paris 1801. *''Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours d'histoire naturelle.'' Plassan, Paris 1799. * *''Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours d'histoire naturelle des animaux vertébrés et a sang rouge.'' Plassan, Paris 1798. *''Discours d'ouverture du Cours d'histoire naturelle.'' Paris 1797. *
Histoire naturelle des serpents. Tome second.
' de Thou, Paris 1789. *
Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpens. Tome premier.
'' de Thou, Paris 1788. *''Vie de Buffon.'' Maradan, Amsterdam 1788. *
La poétique de la musique
'' Paris 1785. *
Physique générale et particulière
'' Paris 1782–84. *''Essai sur l'électricité naturelle et artificielle.'' Paris 1781.

References

External links

Internet Archive
Works by Lacepede * Lacépède (1856
''Histoire naturelle de Lacépède,'' 2 vol.
–

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...