Henri Milne-Edwards (23 October 1800 – 29 July 1885) was an eminent French
zoologist.
Biography
Henri Milne-Edwards was the 27th child of
William Edwards, an English planter and colonel of the militia in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...
and
Elisabeth Vaux, a Frenchwoman. Henri was born in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
, in present-day
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, where his parents had retired; Bruges was then a part of the newborn
French Republic. His father had been jailed for several years for helping some Englishmen in their escape to their country. Henri spent most of his life in France. He was brought up in Paris by his older brother
Guillaume Frederic Edwards (1777–1842), a distinguished physiologist and ethnologist. His father was released after the fall of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
. The whole family then moved to Paris.
At first he turned his attention to medicine, in which he graduated as an
MD at Paris in 1823. His passion for natural history soon prevailed, and he gave himself up to the study of the lower forms of animal life. He became a student of
Georges Cuvier and befriended
Jean Victoire Audouin.
He married Laura Trézel. They had nine children, including the biologist
Alphonse Milne-Edwards.
Name
Originally the name Milne was one of the first names of Henri, but, to avoid confusion with his numerous relatives, he added it to his surname Edwards. He usually wrote it as "Milne Edwards", whilst his son Alphonse always used "Milne-Edwards". In taxon-authorship, the hyphenated name "Milne-Edwards" is most often used for both father and son.
Works
One of his earliest papers ('), which was presented to the
French Academy of Sciences in 1829, formed the theme of an elaborate and eulogistic report by Cuvier in the following year. It embodied the results of two
dredging expeditions undertaken by him and his friend Audouin during 1826 and 1828 in the neighbourhood of
Granville, and was remarkable for clearly distinguishing the marine fauna of that portion of the French coast into four zones.
Also in 1829, working in the scientific field of
herpetology, he described and named five new species of
lizards.
He became professor of hygiene and natural history in 1832 at the . In 1841, after the death of Audouin, he succeeded him at the chair of entomology at the . In 1862 he succeeded
Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in the long-vacant chair of zoology.
Much of his original work was published in the ''Annales des sciences naturelles'', with the editorship of which he was associated from 1834. Of his books may be mentioned the ' (3 vols., 1837–1841), which long remained a standard work; ', published in 1858–1860, but begun many years before; ' (1857–1881), in 14 volumes; and a little work on the elements of zoology, originally published in 1834, but subsequently remodelled, which enjoyed an enormous circulation.
In 1842, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
. The Royal Society in 1856 awarded him the
Copley Medal in recognition of his zoological investigations. He was elected an international member of 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 1860. He died in Paris. His son, Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835–1900), who became professor of ornithology at the museum in 1876, devoted himself especially to fossil birds and deep-sea exploration.
A diagram of the natural classification of vertebrate animals, from Milne-Edwards, 1844.
An important early classification scheme for vertebrates, diagrammed as a series of nested sets, was illustrated in Milne-Edwards (1844).
Honour
The name of Henri Milne-Edwards is honoured in several names of genera and species, such as:
*''
Edwardsia''
de Quatrefages, 1841
*''
Edwardsiella''
Andres, 1883
*''
Henricia''
J. E. Gray, 1840
*''
Myrianida edwardsi''
(de Saint-Joseph, 1887)
*''
Lophoura edwardsi''
Kölliker, 1853
*''
Plesiopenaeus edwardsianus''
(Johnson, 1867)
*''
Plesionika edwardsii''
(Brandt, 1851)
*''
Dynamene edwardsi''
(Lucas, 1849)
*''
Grapsicepon edwardsi''
Giard & Bonnier, 1888
*''
Glossocephalus milneedwardsi''
Bovallius, 1887
*''
Onisimus edwardsii''
(Krøyer, 1846)
*''
Diastylis edwardsi''
(Krøyer, 1841)
*''
Neoamphitrite edwardsii''
(de Quatrefages, 1865)
*''
Colpaster edwardsi''
(Perrier, 1882)
*''
Milnesium
''Milnesium'' is a genus of tardigrades. It is rather common, being found in a wide variety of habitats across the world. It has a fossil record extending back to the Cretaceous, the oldest species found so far (''M. swolenskyi'') is known from ...
''
Doyère, 1840
*''
Jasus edwardsii
''Jasus edwardsii'', the southern rock lobster, red rock lobster, or spiny rock lobster, is a species of spiny lobster found throughout coastal waters of southern Australia and New Zealand including the Chatham Islands. It is commonly called ...
''
(Hutton, 1875)
*''
Odontozona edwardsi''
(Bouvier, 1908)
*''
Milneedwardsia''
Bourguignat, 1877
*''
Boeckosimus edwardsii''
(Krøyer, 1846)
*''
Lithophyllon edwardsi''
(Rosseau, 1850)
*''
Goniastria edwardsi''
Chevalier, 1971
*''
Fedora edwardsi''
Jullien, 1882
*''
Ciona edwardsi''
(Roule, 1886)
*''
Maasella edwardsi''
(de Lacaze-Duthiers, 1888)
*''
Forskalia edwardsi''
Kölliker, 1853
*''
Costa edwardsii''
(Roemer, 1838)
*''
Colobomatus edwardsi''
(Richiardi, 1876)
*''
Salmincola edwardsi''
(Olsson, 1869)
*''
Aristaeopsis edwardsianus''
(Johnson, 1867)
*''
Sergestes edwardsii''
Krøyer, 1855
*''
Odontozona edwardsi''
(Bouvier, 1908)
*''
Alphaeus edwardsii''
(Audouin, 1826)
*''
Ebalia edwardsii''
Costa, 1838
*''
Fedora edwardsi''
Jullien, 1882
*''
Teuchopora edwardsi''
(Jullien, 1882)
*''
Calliostoma milneedwardsi''
Locard, 1898
*''
Ocinebrina edwardsii''
Payraudeau, 1826
*''
Discodoris edwardsi''
Vayssière, 1902
*''
Tergipes edwardsii
''Tergipes'' is a genus of sea slugs, specifically aeolid nudibranchs, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Tergipedidae.
''Tergipes'' is the type genus of the family Tergipedidae.
Species
Species within the genus ''Tergipes'' includ ...
''
Nordmann, 1844
*''
Sadayoshia edwardsii''
(Miers, 1884)
*''
Periclimenes edwardsi''
(Paulson, 1875)
*''
Ocenebra edwardsi''
Payraudeau, 1826
*''
Conus milneedwardsi''
F. P. Jousseaume, 1894
*''
Montipora edwardsi''
Bernard, 1879
*''
Goniastrea edwardsi''
Chevalier, 1971
*''
Pagurus edwardsi''
(Dana, 1852)
*''
Chirostylus milneedwardsi''
(Henderson, 1885)
*''
Pisoides edwardsi''
Bell, 1835
*''
Cancer edwardsi''
Bell, 1835
*''
Haploblepharus edwardsii''
Voigt, 1832
*''
Diogenes edwardsii''
(de Haan, 1849)
*''
Propithecus edwardsi''
(A. Grandidier, 1871)
*''
Archaeoniscus edwardsii''
(Westwood, 1854)
References
Bibliography
*Marcelin Berthelot, ''Notice historique sur Henri Milne Edwards'', Didot, Paris 1891.
*Trevor Norton: ''Stars beneath the sea'', Carroll & Graf, New York 2000.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milne-Edwards, Henri
1800 births
1885 deaths
French taxonomists
French carcinologists
French ornithologists
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
French people of English descent
Scientists from Bruges
19th-century French zoologists
National Museum of Natural History (France) people
Presidents of the Société entomologique de France