François-Joseph Scohy (1831–1881) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

military physician and archaeologist.

Life

Scohy was born in

Gilly, Belgium Gilly (, wa, Djilî) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It was a municipality of its own before the fusion of the Belgian municipalities in 1977. It houses the b ...

, on 26 September 1831. He studied medicine and natural science at the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, graduating doctor in both. In 1852 he joined the army, continuing his studies while working as a military medic. In February 1860, while he was garrisoned at Lier, canalisation works dug up bones of enormous size. Scohy identified these as the bones of a

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

and ensured their preservation.Ernest Matthieu, "Scohy, François-Joseph", in ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' (French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

''
vol. 22
(Brussels, 1920), 110-111. The

Lier mammoth The Lier mammoth is the skeleton of a mammoth that was found in 1860 near the Dungelhoeffkazerne in Lier in the Province of Antwerp of Belgium, while digging the diversion canal of the Nete. Its importance was recognised by a military doctor sta ...

was mounted and in 1869 went on display in the

Museum of Natural Sciences The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (french: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, nl, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of t ...

in Brussels. Scohy died in Lillois (now part of

Braine-l'Alleud Braine-l'Alleud (; nl, Eigenbrakel ; wa, Brinne-l'-Alou) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium, about south of Brussels. The municipality consists of the following districts: Braine-l'Alleud (includ ...

) on 27 July 1881.

Works

*"Sur les ossements fossiles découverts à Lierre le 28 février 1860", ''Bulletins de l'Académie Royale de Belgique'', 2nd series, vol. 9, no. 5 (1860), pp. 436–455 *''Introduction à l'histoire générale de la médecine'' (Brussels, 1867)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scohy, Francois 1831 births 1881 deaths 19th-century archaeologists Belgian military doctors Belgian archaeologists Medical historians