Étienne Jules Adolphe Desmier de Saint-Simon, Vicomte d'Archiac (24 September 180224 December 1868) was a French
geologist and
paleontologist.
Early life
He was born at
Reims
Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...
and educated at the
Military School of St. Cyr. He served for nine years as a cavalry officer until 1830, when he retired from the service. Prior to this he had published an historical romance (''Zizim, ou les Chevaliers de Rhodes, roman historique du XVe siècle''); but now
geology
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
became his primary focus. In his earlier scientific works, which date from 1835, he described the
Tertiary and
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...
formations of France, Belgium and England, and dealt especially with the distribution of
fossils geographically and in sequence. Later on he investigated the
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...
,
Devonian and
Silurian formations.
Magnum opus
His best work was "''Histoire des progrès de la géologie de 1834 à 1859''", published in eight volumes (1847–1860). In 1853 the
Wollaston Medal of the
Geological Society of London was awarded to him. In the same year, with
Jules Haime (1824–1856), he published a monograph on the
Nummulitic formation of
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. In 1857 he was elected a member of the
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of 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 method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...
, and in 1861 he was appointed professor of paleontology in the
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. His better known later works include "''Paléontologie stratigraphique''", in three volumes (1864–1865); "''Géologie et paléontologie''" (1866); and his paleontological contributions to
de Tchihatcheff's "''Asie mineure''" (1866).
Death
While suffering from severe depression he committed suicide by throwing himself into the
River Seine on Christmas Eve, 1868.
See also
*
Mount D'Archiac, a mountain in New Zealand named after him.
Further reading
*
References
*
External links
OCLC ClassifyList of publications by Adolphe d'Archiac.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archiac, Adolphe d
French paleontologists
French geologists
1802 births
1868 deaths
Scientists from Reims
Suicides by drowning in France
Wollaston Medal winners
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
1860s suicides