Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (or Louis-Augustin Bosc d'Antic) (29 January 1759 – 10 July 1828) was a French
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
,
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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
, 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. S ...
, 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 earlies ...
, 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 and met botanist
René Desfontaines
René (''Born again (Christianity), born again'' or ''reborn'' in French language, French) is a common given name, first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus.
René is th ...
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 South ...
. He also took up with
Jean Marie Roland
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* J ...
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 zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is cons ...
. 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 oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
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 good ...
,
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 South ...
,
Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison
Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison (19 July 1759 (Paris) – 14 August 1818 Paris) was an antiquary and naturalist erudite in various domains, who followed Jean-Jacques Barthélemy as curator of the Cabinet des médailles et antiques of the former ...
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 the ...
. 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. At t ...
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.
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 Louis-Marie may refer to:
* Louis Marie Baptiste Atthalin (1784–1856), French Army officer, politician, painter, watercolorist, and lithographer
* Louis-Marie-Augustin d'Aumont, 4th Duke of Aumont of the Aumont family, a French noble house
* Loui ...
. It was at this time he became tutor to Eudora Roland, Roland's daughter. La Réveliière-Lépeaux, having become a member of the ''
Directoire
The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by ...
'', 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 natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...
, 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 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 Marie Auguste Brous ...
received his insects;
François Marie Daudin, his birds;
Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom ...
, his reptiles; and the
comte de Lacépède, his fish. He was also the friend and protector of naturalists
Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent
Jean-Baptiste Geneviève Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist, officer and politician. He was born on 6 July 1778 in Agen ( Lot-et-Garonne) and died on 22 December 1846 in Paris. Biologist and geographer, he was particularly i ...
and
Jean-Marie Léon Dufour.
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
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 good ...
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'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 ...
and
natural history. He was the author of three volumes of ''
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 ...
'', 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'' was named after him, honoring his works in botany.
Associated works
* ''Les Plantes, poëme'', Paris, Mi ...
: ''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 naturalist.
Career
Between 1799 and 1808, Sonnini de Manoncourt wrote 127 volumes of the ''Histoire naturelle''. Noteworthy among these, especiall ...
(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
Olivier de Serres (; 1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose '' Théâtre d'Agriculture'' (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century.
Biography
Serres was born in 1539 at Villeneuve-de-Berg, ...
, 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
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
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 ...
,
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 ...
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
Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat was a French entomologist, born 29 March 1799 in Paris and died 16 December 1884 in Paris.
In government service in Paris, this amateur entomologist studied mainly beetles and birds. He published nearly 250 note ...
collection).
Bosc is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, ''
Acanthodactylus boskianus''.
[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 Guillaumeat 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