HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Georges-Louis Leclerc,
Comte ''Comte'' is the French, Catalan and Occitan form of the word 'count' (Latin: ''comes''); ''comté'' is the Gallo-Romance form of the word 'county' (Latin: ''comitatus''). Comte or Comté may refer to: * A count in French, from Latin ''comes'' * A ...
de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist,
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
,
cosmologist Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent French scientists
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biologi ...
and
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...
. Buffon published thirty-six
quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
volumes of his ''
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 ...
'' during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death.
Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher o ...
wrote that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century".Mayr, Ernst 1981. ''The Growth of Biological Thought''. Cambridge: Harvard. p 330 Credited with being one of the first naturalists to recognize
ecological succession Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less. Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...
, he was later forced by the theology committee at the
University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...
to recant his theories about geological history and animal evolution because they contradicted the Biblical narrative of Creation. Buffon held the position of ''intendant'' (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des Plantes.


Early life

Georges Louis Leclerc (later Comte de Buffon) was born at
Montbard Montbard () is a commune and subprefecture of the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Montbard is a small industrial town on the river Brenne. The ''Forges de Buffon'', ironworks established by Buff ...
, in the Province of
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
to Benjamin Francois Leclerc, a minor local official in charge of the
salt tax A salt tax refers to the direct taxation of salt, usually levied proportionately to the volume of salt purchased. The taxation of salt dates as far back as 300BC, as salt has been a valuable good used for gifts and religious offerings since 6050B ...
and Anne-Christine Marlin also from a family of civil servants. Georges was named after his mother's uncle (his godfather) Georges Blaisot, the tax-farmer of the Duke of Savoy for all of
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
. In 1714 Blaisot died childless, leaving a considerable fortune to his seven-year-old godson. Benjamin Leclerc then purchased an estate containing the nearby village of Buffon and moved the family to Dijon acquiring various offices there as well as a seat in the Dijon Parlement. Georges attended the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon from the age of ten onwards. From 1723 to 1726 he then studied law in Dijon, the prerequisite for continuing the family tradition in civil service. In 1728 Georges left Dijon to study mathematics and medicine at the
University of Angers The University of Angers (french: Université d'Angers; UA) is a public university in western France, with campuses in Angers, Cholet, and Saumur. It forms part of thAngers-Le Mans University Community History The University of Angers was init ...
in France. At Angers in 1730 he made the acquaintance of the young English
Duke of Kingston Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, with the title Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull being a title in the Peerage of England. The Earldom was created on 25 July 1628 for Robert Pierrepont, 1st Viscount Newark. Th ...
, who was on his grand tour of Europe, and traveled with him on a large and expensive entourage for a year and a half through southern France and parts of Italy. There are persistent but completely undocumented rumors from this period about duels, abductions and secret trips to England. In 1732 after the death of his mother and before the impending remarriage of his father, Georges left Kingston and returned to Dijon to secure his inheritance. Having added 'de Buffon' to his name while traveling with the Duke, he repurchased the village of Buffon, which his father had meanwhile sold off. With a fortune of about 80,000
livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
Buffon set himself up in Paris to pursue science, at first primarily mathematics and mechanics, and the increase of his fortune.


Career

In 1732 he moved to
Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he made the acquaintance of
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
and other intellectuals. He lived in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain ''Faubourg Saint-Germain'' () is a historic district of Paris, France. The ''Faubourg'' has long been known as the favourite home of the French nobility, French high nobility and hosts many aristocratic ''hôtels particuliers''. It is currently pa ...
, with
Gilles-François Boulduc Gilles-François Boulduc (born 20 February 1675 in Paris; died 17 January 1741 in Versailles) was a French pharmacist and chemist.All but one reference gives 20 February 1675 as the date of birth. The closest reference to this date of death is that ...
, first apothecary of the King, professor of chemistry at the Royal Garden of Plants, member of the
Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...
. He first made his mark in the field of mathematics and, in his (''On the game of fair-square''), introduced differential and integral
calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...
into
probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...
; the problem of
Buffon's needle In mathematics, Buffon's needle problem is a question first posed in the 18th century by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon: :Suppose we have a floor made of parallel strips of wood, each the same width, and we drop a needle onto the floor. ...
in
probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...
is named after him. In 1734 he was admitted to the
French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...
. During this period he corresponded with the Swiss mathematician
Gabriel Cramer Gabriel Cramer (; 31 July 1704 – 4 January 1752) was a Genevan mathematician. He was the son of physician Jean Cramer and Anne Mallet Cramer. Biography Cramer showed promise in mathematics from an early age. At 18 he received his doctorate ...
. His protector
Maurepas Maurepas may refer to: * Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas, French statesman Count of Maurepas (Yvelines) * Fort Maurepas, also known as Old Biloxi, a settlement in Louisiana (New France) * Maurepas, Louisiana, an unincorporated comm ...
had asked the Academy of Sciences to do research on wood for the construction of ships in 1733. Soon afterward, Buffon began a long-term study, performing some of the most comprehensive tests to date on the mechanical properties of
wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
. Included were a series of tests to compare the properties of small specimens with those of large members. After carefully testing more than a thousand small specimens without knots or other defects, Buffon concluded that it was not possible to extrapolate to the properties of full-size timbers, and he began a series of tests on full-size structural members. In 1739 he was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi with the help of Maurepas; he held this position to the end of his life. Buffon was instrumental in transforming the Jardin du Roi into a major research center and museum. He also enlarged it, arranging the purchase of adjoining plots of land and acquiring new botanical and zoological specimens from all over the world. Thanks to his talent as a writer, he was invited to join Paris's second great academy, the
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
in 1753 and then in 1768 he was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
. In his ("Discourse on Style"), pronounced before the Académie française, he said, "Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul and taste ... The style is the man himself" (""). Unfortunately for him, Buffon's reputation as a literary stylist also gave ammunition to his detractors: The mathematician
Jean le Rond D'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''Encyclopédie ...
, for example, called him "the great phrase-monger". In 1752 Buffon married Marie-Françoise de Saint-Belin-Malain, the daughter of an impoverished noble family from Burgundy, who had been enrolled in the convent school run by his sister. Madame de Buffon's second child, a son born in 1764, survived childhood; she herself died in 1769. When in 1772 Buffon became seriously ill and the promise that his son (then only 8) should succeed him as director of the Jardin became clearly impracticable and was withdrawn, the King raised Buffon's estates in Burgundy to the status of a county – and thus Buffon (and his son) became a
count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1782. Buffon died in Paris in 1788. He was buried in a chapel adjacent to the church of Sainte-Urse Montbard; during 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 November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, his tomb was broken into and the lead that covered the coffin was ransacked to produce bullets. His
heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...
was initially saved, as it was guarded by Suzanne Necker (wife of
Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a Genevan banker and statesman who served as finance minister for Louis XVI. He was a reformer, but his innovations sometimes caused great discontent. Necker was a constitutional monarchi ...
), but was later lost. Today, only Buffon's
cerebellum The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cerebel ...
remains, as it is kept in the base of the statue by Pajou that
Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
had commissioned in his honor in 1776, located at the
Museum of Natural History A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.


Works

Buffon's '' Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière'' (1749–1788: in 36 volumes; an additional volume based on his notes appeared in 1789) was originally intended to cover all three "kingdoms" of nature but the ''Histoire naturelle'' ended up being limited to the animal and mineral kingdoms, and the animals covered were only the birds and quadrupeds. "Written in a brilliant style, this work was read ... by every educated person in Europe". Those who assisted him in the production of this great work included
Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton (29 May 1716 – 1 January 1800) was a French naturalist and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers''. Biography Daubenton was born at Montbard, Côte-d' ...
, Philibert Guéneau de Montbeillard, and Gabriel-Léopold Bexon, along with numerous artists. Buffon's was translated into many different languages, making him one of the most widely read authors of the day, a rival to
Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principa ...
,
Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
, and
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
. In the opening volumes of the ''Histoire naturelle'' Buffon questioned the usefulness of mathematics, criticized
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
's taxonomical approach to natural history, outlined a history of the Earth with little relation to the Biblical account, and proposed a theory of reproduction that ran counter to the prevailing theory of
pre-existence Pre-existence, preexistence, beforelife, or premortal existence, is the belief that each individual human soul existed before mortal conception, and at some point before birth enters or is placed into the body. Concepts of pre-existence can enc ...
. The early volumes were condemned by the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne. Buffon published a retraction, but he continued publishing the offending volumes without any change. In the course of his examination of the animal world, Buffon noted that despite similar environments, different regions have distinct plants and animals, a concept later known as Buffon's Law. This is considered to be the first principle of
biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
. He made the suggestion that species may have both "improved" and "degenerated" after dispersing from a center of creation. In volume 14 he argued that all the world's
quadruped Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor' ...
s had developed from an original set of just thirty-eight quadrupeds. On this basis, he is sometimes considered a " transformist" and a precursor of Darwin. He also asserted that
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
may have facilitated the worldwide spread of species from their centers of origin. Still, interpreting his ideas on the subject is not simple, for he returned to topics many times in the course of his work. Buffon considered the similarities between humans and apes, but ultimately rejected the possibility of a
common descent Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...
. He debated with
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (baptised 25 October 1714; died 26 May 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar of linguistic evolution, philosopher and deist. He is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical linguistics. In 176 ...
on the relationship of the primates to man, Monboddo insisting, against Buffon, on a close relationship. At one point, Buffon propounded a theory that nature in the
New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
was inferior to that of
Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
. He argued that the Americas were lacking in large and powerful creatures, and that even the people were less virile than their European counterparts. He ascribed this inferiority to the marsh odors and dense forests of the American continent. These remarks so incensed
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
that he dispatched twenty soldiers to the
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
woods to find a bull
moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
for Buffon as proof of the "stature and majesty of American quadrupeds".Bryson, Bill 2004. ''A Short History of Nearly Everything''. New York: Broadway Books. p 81 In ''Les époques de la nature'' (1778) Buffon discussed the origins of the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
, speculating that the planets had been created by a
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
's collision with the Sun. He also suggested that the Earth originated much earlier than 4004 BC, the date determined by Archbishop
James Ussher James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his ident ...
. Basing his figures on the cooling rate of
iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
tested at his Laboratory the Petit Fontenet at
Montbard Montbard () is a commune and subprefecture of the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Montbard is a small industrial town on the river Brenne. The ''Forges de Buffon'', ironworks established by Buff ...
, he calculated that the age of the Earth was 75,000 years. Once again, his ideas were condemned by the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
, and once again he issued a retraction to avoid further problems.


Publications

* * * * * * * * * *


Racial studies

Buffon and
Johann Blumenbach Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He wa ...
were believers in
monogenism Monogenism or sometimes monogenesis is the theory of human origins which posits a common descent for all human races. The negation of monogenism is polygenism. This issue was hotly debated in the Western world in the nineteenth century, as the ...
, the concept that all races have a single origin. They also believed in the "degeneration theory" of racial origins. They both said that
Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
were
Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...
and that other races came about by degeneration from environmental factors, such as the sun and poor diet. They believed that the degeneration could be reversed if proper environmental control was taken, and that all contemporary forms of man could revert to the original Caucasian race.Marvin Harris, ''The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture,'' 2001, p. 84 Buffon and Blumenbach claimed that
pigmentation A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...
arose because of the heat of the tropical sun. They suggested cold wind caused the tawny colour of the Eskimos. They thought the
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
relatively fair-skinned compared to the other Asian stocks because they kept mostly in towns and were protected from environmental factors. Buffon said that food and the mode of living could make races degenerate and distinguish them from the original Caucasian race. Believing in monogenism, Buffon thought that skin color could change in a single lifetime, depending on the conditions of climate and diet. Buffon was an advocate of the Asia hypothesis; in his ''Histoire Naturelle'', he argued that humans' birthplace must be in a high temperate zone. As he believed good climate conditions would breed healthy humans, he hypothesized that the most logical place to look for the first humans' existence would be in Asia and around the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
region.


Relevance to modern biology

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
wrote in his preliminary historical sketch added to the third edition of ''
On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
'': "Passing over ... Buffon, with whose writings I am not familiar". Then, from the fourth edition onwards, he amended this to say that "the first author who in modern times has treated it volutionin a scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions fluctuated greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on the causes or means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter on details". Buffon's work on degeneration, however, was immensely influential on later scholars but was overshadowed by strong moral overtones. The paradox of Buffon is that, according to
Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher o ...
: Buffon wrote about the concept of
struggle for existence The concept of the struggle for existence concerns the competition or battle for resources needed to live. It can refer to human society, or to organisms in nature. The concept is ancient, and the term ''struggle for existence'' was in use by the ...
. He developed a system of
heredity Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...
which was similar to Darwin's hypothesis of
pangenesis Pangenesis was Charles Darwin's hypothetical mechanism for heredity, in which he proposed that each part of the body continually emitted its own type of small organic particles called gemmules that aggregated in the gonads, contributing herita ...
. Commenting on Buffon's views, Darwin stated, "If Buffon had assumed that his organic molecules had been formed by each separate unit throughout the body, his view and mine would have been very closely similar."


Works

Buffon, ''Œuvres'', ed. S. Schmitt and C. Crémière, Paris: Gallimard, 2007. Complete works * Vol 1. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy''. Tome I (1749). Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2007, 1376 p. () * Vol 2. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière avec la participation du Cabinet du Roy''. Tome II. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt, avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2008, 808 p. () * Vol 3. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome III (1749), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2009, 776 p. () * Vol 4. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome IV (1753), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2010. 1 vol., 864 p. () * Vol 5. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome V (1755), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2010. 1 vol., 536 p. () * Vol 6. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome VI (1756), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2011. 1 vol., 504 p. () * Vol. 7. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome VII (1758), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2011. 1 vol., 544 p. () * Vol. 8. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome VIII (1760), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2014, 640 p. () * Vol. 9. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome IX (1761), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016, 720 p. () * Vol. 10. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome X (1763), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2017, 814 p. () * Vol. 11. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XI (1764), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2018, 724 p. () * Vol. 12. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XII (1764), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2018, 810 p. () * Vol. 13. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XIII (1765), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2019, 887 p. * Vol. 14. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XIV (1768), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2020, 605 p. * Vol. 15. ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi''. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome XV (1767), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2021, 764 p. File:Buffon-2.jpg, alt=, 1774 edition of ''"Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière"'' File:Buffon-1-2.jpg, alt=, Frontispiece of a 1774 edition of ''"Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière"'' File:Buffon-1-3.jpg, alt=, Table of contents of a 1774 edition of ''"Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière"'' File:Buffon-2-1.jpg, alt=, 1792 English translation of ''"Buffon’s Natural History"'' File:Buffon-2-2.jpg, alt=, Title page of a 1792 English translation of ''"Buffon’s Natural History"'' File:Buffon-2-3.jpg, alt=, Table of contents page of a 1792 English translation of ''"Buffon’s Natural History"'' File:Buffon-2-4.jpg, alt=, Preface for a 1792 English translation of ''"Buffon’s Natural History"''


Eponyms of Buffon


rue Buffon, Dijon


See also

*
Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...
*
Suites à Buffon Les ''Suites à Buffon'' is a French 19th-century scientific publication. Les ''Suites à Buffon'' carries the complete title ''Suites à Buffon formant avec les œuvres de cet auteur un cours complet d'histoire naturelle embrassant les trois rè ...
*
Buffon's Needle In mathematics, Buffon's needle problem is a question first posed in the 18th century by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon: :Suppose we have a floor made of parallel strips of wood, each the same width, and we drop a needle onto the floor. ...
*
Rejection sampling In numerical analysis and computational statistics, rejection sampling is a basic technique used to generate observations from a distribution. It is also commonly called the acceptance-rejection method or "accept-reject algorithm" and is a type of ...


References


External links

* * * * * The Buffon project : :* The same, in English
''L'histoire naturelle''



Buffon's View of Domestic Cats


*
Buffon's American Degeneracy, from The Academy of Natural Sciences

William Smellie's English Translation of Buffon's ''Natural History, General and Particular'', 3rd Edition
*
Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database - version 1.0 - Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.A collection of high-resolution scans of animal illustrations from several books by Buffon
from the
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 ...
* Buffon'
''Histoire naturelle des époches de la nature''
(this ed. published as ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du roy, suppl. vol. 5.'' in 1778) - digital facsimile from the
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 ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc De 1707 births 1788 deaths People from Montbard French naturalists French ornithologists 18th-century French zoologists French Roman Catholics University of Angers (pre-1793) alumni Proto-evolutionary biologists Members of the Académie Française Members of the French Academy of Sciences Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772) Counts of Buffon French science writers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century French male writers 18th-century French mathematicians Founder Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh French male non-fiction writers National Museum of Natural History (France) people