Prosper Garnot (13 January 1794 – 8 October 1838) was a French

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

and naturalist. Garnot was born at

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

. He was an assistant surgeon under

Louis Isidore Duperrey Louis-Isidore Duperrey (21 October 1786 – 25 August 1865) was a French naval officer and explorer. Biography Early life Louis-Isidore Duperrey was born in 1786. Career He joined the navy in 1802, and served as marine hydrologist to Louis Cl ...

on ''La Coquille'' during its circumnavigation of the globe (1822–1825). Along with

René Primevère Lesson René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

he collected numerous natural history specimens in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

and the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Garnot had a severe attack of

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

and was sent back with some of the collection on the ''Castle Forbes''. The specimens were lost when the ship was wrecked off the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

in July 1824. With Lesson he wrote the zoological section of the voyage's report, ''Voyage autour du monde exécuté par order du roi sur la corvette La Coquille'' (1828–1832). He died, aged 44, 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 widely distributed

parthenogenetic Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek grc, παρθένος, translit=parthénos, lit=virgin, label=none + grc, γένεσις, translit=génesis, lit=creation, label=none) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development ...

Indo-Pacific house gecko ''

Hemidactylus garnotii The Indo-Pacific gecko (''Hemidactylus garnotii'') also known as Garnot's house gecko, the fox gecko, or the Assam greyish brown gecko, is a species of gecko found in India, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Australia, and throughout Polynesia. A ...

'' , was named in his honour.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Garnot", p. 98).

References

Literature

*Levot, Prosper Jean (1856). "''Biographie de Prosper Garnot'' ". ''Revue des Provinces de l'Ouest'' 4: 466–467
online
(in French). French Navy officers French naturalists French ornithologists 1794 births 1838 deaths {{Ornithologist-stub