Paul Lemoine (March 28, 1878 – March 14, 1940) was a French

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

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 ...

. He was the son of

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

Georges Lemoine Clément Georges Lemoine (16 January 1841 in Tonnerre – 13 November 1922 in Paris) was a French chemist and hydrologist. He was the father of geologist Paul Lemoine (1878–1940). He studied at the École Polytechnique and the École des po ...

(1841-1922) and husband of phycologist Marie Lemoine (1887–1984).

Career

In 1902-03 he conducted geological studies of northern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

that included

Diego Suarez Diego Suarez or ''Diego-Suarez'' may refer to: * Antsiranana, a city in Madagascar formerly known as Diego-Suarez * Diego Suarez (navigator) or Diogo Soares, 16th-century Portuguese navigator and explorer * Diego Suárez (soldier) (1552–1623), Sp ...

. In 1904 he performed geological/exploratory investigations in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. From 1908 to 1919 he was head of the Géologie au Laboratoire Colonial in Paris. During this time period he also taught classes in geology at the Ecole spéciale d'Architecture (1909-1920). Following the retirement of

Stanislas-Étienne Meunier Stanislas-Étienne Meunier (18 July 1843 – 29 April 1925) was a French geologist born in Paris. In 1864 he began work as an "assistant naturalist" to geologist Gabriel Auguste Daubrée (1814–1896), who was an important and lasting influe ...

(1843-1925), he was appointed chair of geology at the

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 ...

(1920). From 1932 to 1936 he was director of the museum.
Annales, Paul LEMOINE (1878-1940). In 1916 in collaboration with other scientists, he created the ''Société de Documentation Paléontologique'', which later became known as the ''Syndicat de Documentation Géologique et Paléontologique''. Lemoine was a member of 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 ...

, the Société de biogéographie, the Société française de minéralogie et de cristallographie and the

Société géologique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

(its president in 1923 and 1936).

Evolution

Lemoine has been cited in

creationist Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...

literature as being anti-evolution. A quote often attributed to him from the ''

Encyclopédie française The ''Encyclopédie française'' was a French encyclopedia designed by Anatole de Monzie and Lucien Febvre. It appeared between 1935 and 1966. Volumes *I. L'Outillage mental. Pensée, langage, mathématique. *II. La physique. *III. Le Ciel et la ...

'' (Volume 5, 1937) is:

"It results from this explanation that the theory of evolution is not exact ... Evolution is a kind of dogma which its own priests no longer believe, but which they uphold for the people. It is necessary to have the courage to state this if only so that men of a future generation may orient their research into a different direction.""Old, Out of Context Quotations from French Scientists"
Talk Origins.

It is suspected that the quote is taken out of context by creationists, as Lemoine was addressing how evolution occurred, not the fact of evolution itself.

Written works

* ''Conférences sur Madagascar'', 1904 (Lectures on Madagascar) * ''Mission dans le Maroc occidental (automne 1904)'', 1905 (Mission in western Morocco; autumn 1904) * ''Études géologiques dans le nord de Madagascar: Contributions à l'histoire géologique de l'océan indien'', 1906 (Geological srudies of northern Madagascar, Contributions to the geological history of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

). * ''Contributions à la géologie des colonies françaises'', 1908–09. * ''Géologie du bassin de Paris'', 1911 (Geology of the

Paris Basin The Paris Basin is one of the major geological regions of France. It developed since the Triassic over remnant uplands of the Variscan orogeny (Hercynian orogeny). The sedimentary basin, no longer a single drainage basin, is a large sag in the cr ...

) * ''Excursion de la Société géologique de France à Vigny et à Meulan (Seine-et-Oise), le 17 mars 1912, sous la conduite de MM. G.-F. Dollfus et Paul Lemoine. Étude de la position stratigraphique du calcaire pisolithique'', 1912. * ''Afrique occidentale'', 1913 (Western Africa). * ''Volcans et tremblements de terre'', 1928 (

Volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es and

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s). * ''Mon oeuvre au Muséum national d'histoire naturelle pendant cinq ans de direction. 1932-1936'', 1936. * ''Bibliographie des sciences géologiques'', (

Bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

of geological sciences); published by the Geological Society of France with assistance from the French Society of Mineralogy ... Second set. Volume VIII (1937). Foreword by Paul Lemoine and R. Laffitte. [- Volume IX (1938). Foreword by R. Laffitte. * Note:: He is not to be confused with Paul Lemoine, French pediatrician (1917-2006).

References

France savante
(biography and publications) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemoine, Paul 1878 births 1940 deaths French geologists Presidents of Société géologique de France Scientists from Paris