Philippe de La Harpe (1 April 1830,

Paudex Paudex is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron. It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne. History Paudex is first mentioned in 1220 as ''Paudais''. Geography Paudex has an area, , of (depending on ...

– 25 February 1882,

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

) was a Swiss physician known for research in the fields of

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. He studied medicine in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, then received his doctor-surgeon licence from the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

in 1854. He spent the winter of 1855/56 in England, where he made the acquaintance of several geologists, then settled as a doctor in

during the spring of 1856. In Lausanne, he worked as a physician for the remainder of his life, being very active in medical research and a member of various professional groups.Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse
La Harpe, Philippe For several years, he was curator of the canton's geological and

mineralogical Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

collections (1858-1863). With Charles-Théophile Gaudin (1822–1866) and Gabriel de Rumine (1841–1871), he made significant paleontological findings in the

Canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...

. During the last decade of his life, he devoted his energies to the study of

nummulite A nummulite is a large lenticular fossil, characterized by its numerous coils, subdivided by septa into chambers. They are the shells of the fossil and present-day marine protozoan ''Nummulites'', a type of foraminiferan. Nummulites commonly vary ...

s, of which he became an international authority.

Selected works

He made contributions to François Jules Pictet's ''Matériaux pour la paléontologie suisse, ou recueil de monographies sur les fossiles du Jura et des Alpes'' (1855-1857). The following are some of his noteworthy written efforts: * ''Notice sur la faune du terrain sidérolithique dans la canton de Vaud'', 1870 – On the fauna of the siderolithic terrain in the canton of Vaud. * ''Note sur les Nummulites des Alpes occidentales'', 1877 – On nummulites of the western

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

. * ''Note sur la Géologie des environs de Louèche-les-Bains'', 1877 – On the geology in the vicinity of Louèche-les-Bains. * ''Nummulites des Alpes françaises'' – Nummulites of the French Alps. * ''Étude des Nummulites de la Suisse et revision des espèces éocènes des genres Nummulites et Assilina '', 1880 – Study of nummulites of Switzerland and a revision of

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

species of the genera ''Nummulites'' and ''Assilina''. * ''Esquisse géologique de la chaîne du Meuvran'' – Geological sketch of the Muverans.IDREF.fr
bubliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Harpe, Philippe de 1830 births 1882 deaths People from Lavaux-Oron District Swiss paleontologists 19th-century Swiss geologists University of Bern alumni