Louis François de Pourtalès (4 March 1824 – 18 July 1880)
was a
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ...
-
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
naturalist, born at
Neuchâtel
, neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier
, twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
Early life and education
Pourtales was born on 4 March 1824 and regarded as a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
representative of an old family with linage in
France,
Prussia, and
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
.
After the death of his father, he succeeded to the title of Count and inherited a fortune that enabled his scientific pursuits.
He was educated as an engineer.
He was regarded as an expert in mathematics, physics and zoology, and had interest in literature, poetry and history.
Death
Pourtales died on 18 July 1880 from an unspecified "obscure internal disease".
Career
Pourtales was a pupil of
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
,
whom he accompanied in 1840 on
glacial expeditions in the
Alps and, in 1847, followed Agassiz to immigrate into the United States.
In 1848, he entered government service with the
Coast Survey and became profoundly interested in the deep sea.
He made some of the first observations of the deep sea bottom and of
globigerina.
In 1851 he assisted in the triangulation of the
Florida Reef, and from 1854 until his resignation in 1873 had special charge of the office and field work of the tidal department of the Coast Survey.
In 1873 he became custodian of the Harvard
Museum of Comparative Zoology, in which he had previously been assistant in
zoology. He was later appointed Keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and worked closely with the curator
Alexander Agassiz
Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer.
Biography
Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and immigrated to ...
.
L. Agassiz attempted to get him a professorship.
In 1871, Pourtalès published one of his most famous works, ''Deep Sea Corals'' based on his memoirs as the first in the United States to undertake deep-sea dredging
with
USC&GS ''George S. Blake'', and was an authority on
marine zoology. A second memoir was published on the results of the
Hassler Expedition.
Pourtalès' last work was a report on the Florida Reef.
Honors and awards
The name ''
Pourtalesia
''Pourtalesia'' is a genus of the family Pourtalesiidae which belongs to the irregular (bilaterally symmetrical) sea urchins. The animals measure 5–6 cm in length and live in the abyssal zone of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indopacific and An ...
'' was given to a
genus of
sea urchin
Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...
s as found by the
Challenger expedition.
He was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
and wrote various contributions to the Coast Survey reports, to
Benjamin Silliman's ''
American Journal of Science
The ''American Journal of Science'' (''AJS'') is the United States of America's longest-running scientific journal, having been published continuously since its conception in 1818 by Professor Benjamin Silliman, who edited and financed it himself ...
'', and to the ''Proceedings'' of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
.
Works
He published, under the auspices of the museum, several works, including:
*
*
*
* ''Corals and
Crinoids'' (1878)
* ''Report on the Corals and Antipatharia'' (1880)
References
External links
*
*
"Sketch of Count Pourtales", ''Popular Science Monthly'', Volume 18, February 1881
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pourtales, Louis Francois de
1824 births
1880 deaths
Pourtalès family
People from Neuchâtel
Harvard University staff
American naturalists
Swiss emigrants to the United States
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States Coast Survey