Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (or Louis-Augustin Bosc d'Antic) (29 January 1759 – 10 July 1828) was a French botanist,

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

, and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Biography

Bosc was born 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. ...

, the son of Paul Bosc d’Antic, a medical doctor and chemist. He studied at

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earl ...

, where he was the pupil of botanist Jean-François Durande and chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton-Morveau. Being unable to become an artilleryman, he worked initially for the office of the controller general and then for the comptroller of the postal service. In time he took courses in botany under

Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

René Desfontaines and naturalist

Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (28 February 1761 – 17 January 1807) was a French naturalist who contributed primarily to botany. He was born in Montpellier, where he was educated, and travelled to Morocco, Spain, the Canary Islands, and Souther ...

. He also took up with Jean Marie Roland and

Madame Roland Marie-Jeanne 'Manon' Roland de la Platière (Paris, March 17, 1754 – Paris, November 8, 1793), born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame Roland, was a French revolutionary, salonnière and writer. Initially she led a ...

and formed a lasting relationship with Danish entomologist

Johan Christian Fabricius Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoology, zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, an ...

. While working for the postal service he carried out work on natural history, publishing a description of a new species of fly, Orthezia characais, and a method of preserving insect larvae. In 1785 Bosc was invited to join the Lapérouse round the world expedition as a naturalist, but declined. This was fortunate for him, as the expedition was lost after leaving

Botany Bay Botany Bay ( Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refe ...

in March 1788. Together with

André Thouin André Thouin (10 February 1747 – 24 October 1824) was a French botanist. Thouin studied botany under Bernard de Jussieu, and in 1793 attained the chair of horticulture at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. He was a goo ...

, Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison and Pierre Willemet, Bosc participated, in 1787, in the founding of the first Linnean society in the world, the ''Société linnéenne de Paris''. They were soon joined by other naturalists. This society was dissolved in 1789, in part due to hostility from the established

Académie Royale des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at t ...

. Both Bosc and Broussonet were among the first foreign members of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

. After the

Storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. A ...

in 1789, new laws in France permitted freedom of the press and assembly, allowing the formation of new societies, newspapers and journals. Among these was the Société d'Histoire Naturelle, founded in 1790 in Bosc's Home. Its journal, ''Actes de la société d'histoire naturelle de Paris'' was short-lived, but included a number of items by Bosc.. Both Bosc and the Society were politically active, with Republican leanings. Bosc was a member of the

Jacobin Club , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = P ...

. He was also an active member of the Philomatic Society of Paris. His friendship with Roland allowed Bosc to rise to a substantial position, but when that minister fell into disgrace he was dismissed on 31 May 1793. Bosc left Paris, and lived as a country former in the forest of Montmorency. He sheltered several people persecuted by the Terror, including Roland and Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux. It was at this time he became tutor to Eudora Roland, Roland's daughter. La Réveliière-Lépeaux, having become a member of the '' Directoire'', allowed Bosc to leave for the United States, first as vice-consul to Wilmington in 1797, then as consul to New York in 1798. Upon his return to France, he published ''Memoire sur quelques especes des champignons des parties meridionales de l'Amerique septentrionale'' (1811). This work was the first-ever systematic examination of the mushrooms of the southern United States, and established Bosc as the founder of mycology in that region. Bosc was brought back to France, where he served for a time as administrator of hospitals and prisons and obtained, in 1803, after a sojourn in Switzerland and Italy courtesy of

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in na ...

, a position in the gardens and nurseries of Versailles. He gave his collections to his naturalist friends. Thus, Fabricius and

Guillaume-Antoine Olivier Guillaume-Antoine Olivier (; 19 January 1756, Les Arcs, Var, Les Arcs near Toulon – 1 October 1814, Lyon) was a French entomologist and naturalist. Life Olivier studied medicine in Montpellier, where he became good friends with Pierre Mari ...

received his insects;

François Marie Daudin François Marie Daudin (; 29 August 1776 in Paris – 30 November 1803 in Paris) was a French zoologist. With legs paralyzed by childhood disease, he studied physics and natural history, but ended up being devoted to the latter. Daudin wrote ' ( ...

, his birds;

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoology, zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained hi ...

, his reptiles; and the comte de Lacépède, his fish. He was also the friend and protector of naturalists Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and

Jean-Marie Léon Dufour Jean-Marie is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Jean-Marie Abgrall (born 1950), a French psychiatrist, criminologist, specialist in forensic medicine, cult expert, and graduate in criminal law * Jean-Marie Ch ...

. In 1806, he was elected to membership in the ''

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

'' in the rural husbandry section. In 1825, he succeeded

to the chair of plant culture at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. He died unexpectedly not many years later in Paris, in 1828.

Legacy

Bosc 1802 Crustaceans 0301 Plate 7 (cropped) Maja squinado

Bosc 1802 Coquilles Volume 5 0167 Plate 40 (cropped) Conus textile

Bosc's legacy lies mainly in the fields of

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and s ...

and natural history. He was the author of three volumes of '' Suites à Buffon'', edited by

René Richard Louis Castel René Richard Louis Castel (6 October 1758 in Vire – 15 June 1832 in Reims) was a French poet and naturalist. The genus ''Castela ''Castela'' is a genus of thorny shrubs and small trees in the family Simaroubaceae. Members of the gen ...

: ''Histoire naturelle des Coquilles'' (Paris, 5 volumes, 1802); ''Histoire naturelle des Vers'' (Paris, 3 volumes, 1802); and ''Histoire naturelle des Crustacés'' (Paris, 2 volumes, 1802). Bosc participated in the editing of the ''Nouveau Dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle appliquée aux arts, principalement à l'agriculture, à l'économie rurale et domestique'', under the direction of Jean-François-Pierre Deterville and

Sonnini de Manoncourt Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1 February 1751 – 9 May 1812) was a French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and ...

(Paris, 24 volumes, 1803–1804, re-edited in 36 volumes, 1816–1819), and the ''Nouveau Cours complet d'agriculture théorique et pratique'', also directed by Deterville (Paris, 13 volumes, 1809, re-edited in 16 volumes, 1821–1823). Bosc also supervised the editing and republication of the agricultural classic, ''Théâtre d'agriculture'' (1600) by Olivier de Serres, published by the ''Société centrale d'agriculture de Paris'', whose ''Annales'' he also published. Notton (2007) provides a catogue of parasitic wasps with reference to Bosc's collection. Dolan (2020) gives a full bibliography of Bosc's publications, and a list of all the species described by him. Bosc's grave lies in a little cemetery in the forest of Montmorency, a National Forest open to the public, in the commune of Saint-Prix in the

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.< ...

. Bosc's insect collection is shared between the

Natural History Museum of Geneva The Natural History Museum of Geneva (in French: ') is a natural history museum in Geneva, Switzerland. Louis Jurine’s collections of Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hemiptera are held by the museum. Other displays include a col ...

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 loca ...

in Paris, and the

Natural History Museum 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 London ( Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat collection). Bosc is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, ''

Acanthodactylus boskianus Bosc's fringe-toed lizard or Bosk's fringe-fingered lizard (''Acanthodactylus boskianus'') is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to North Africa and Western Asia. Three subspecies are sometimes recognised; ''A. ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Bosc", p. 32).

Notes

External links

Bosc, Louis Augustin Guillaume
at encyclopedia.com

References

* * ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bosc, Louis Augustin Guillaume French zoologists French taxonomists 1759 births 1828 deaths French carcinologists French entomologists French ichthyologists French ornithologists Hymenopterists Members of the French Academy of Sciences 18th-century French zoologists 19th-century French zoologists National Museum of Natural History (France) people