François Auguste Péron (22 August 1775 – 14 December 1810) was a French
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
and
explorer
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
.
Life
Péron was born in
Cérilly, Allier, in 1775, the son of a tailor (not a harness maker as is frequently asserted). Although intended for the priesthood, due to the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
Péron reluctantly joined the 2nd Allier Volunteer Battalion in 1792 and helped defend besieged
Landau
Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long ...
. In the following year he was wounded and taken prisoner by Prussian forces near
Hochspeyer in the
Pfälzerwald. Imprisoned in the fortress of
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river.
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...
, he was not repatriated to France until 1794. Having lost the sight of an eye, Péron was invalided out of the army. For two years he was Town Clerk in Cérilly before gaining a scholarship to study medicine in Paris. While in Paris, Péron changed interests towards zoology, spending time at the
Muséum d'histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...
.
In 1800, after an unhappy love affair, he sought to join
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 175416 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana ...
's
expedition to Australian waters as an anthropological observer. Instead he was appointed as a trainee zoologist.
During the voyage, which charted significant stretches of the Australian coast between 1801 and 1803, Péron clashed repeatedly with Baudin. When Stanislas Levillain and
René Maugé died, Péron rose to prominence as the sole remaining zoologist. (Baudin had already lost numerous officers, sailors, savants and artists who deserted in
Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
.) With the aid of the artist
Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Charles Alexandre Lesueur (; 1 January 1778 in Le Havre – 12 December 1846 in Le Havre) was a French Natural history, naturalist, artist, and explorer. He was a prolific natural-history collector, gathering many type specimens in Australia ...
, Péron was largely responsible for gathering some 100,000 zoological specimens—the most comprehensive Australian natural history collection to date. Although he died before he could fully study his specimens, Péron made a major contribution to the foundations of the natural sciences in Australia and was a prescient ecological thinker. He was also a pioneer oceanographer who conducted important experiments on sea water temperatures at depth.
As a Corresponding Member of the ''
Société des observateurs de l'homme Société des observateurs de l'homme, rendered in English as Society of Observers of Man, was a French learned society founded in Paris in 1799. Long considered the birthplace of French anthropology, the society nevertheless dissolved in 1804.
...
'', Péron wrote a great deal about the
Tasmanian Aborigines of the
D’Entrecasteaux Channel, on south-eastern
Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
. Within 30 years almost all were dead through disease and war. The Australian historian
Edward Duyker has shown that he has been unfairly accused of
polygenism
Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that humans are of different origins (polygenesis). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views find little merit ...
and racism, mainly because of a mistranslation of extracts from one of his scientific papers.
Baudin died before he could return to France, and it was Péron who began writing the official account of the expedition: (). In doing so, he committed a great injustice to his former commander's memory by magnifying his faults and frequently distorting the historical record. In the wake of the resumed fighting between France and Britain, Péron also drafted a secret ''Memo on English settlements in New Holland'' (), which advocated a French conquest of
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...
with the aid of rebellious Irish convicts.
Péron died of tuberculosis in his hometown of Cérilly in 1810. He was just thirty-five years old. The task of completing the official account of the expedition fell to
Louis de Freycinet
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (7 August 1779 – 18 August 1841) was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the Earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
Biography
He was born at M ...
.
Taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
named in honour of Péron
Several
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of reptiles, amphibians and mammals were named in honour of Péron:
*''
Litoria peronii'' (
Tschudi, 1838) – Péron’s treefrog (
Hylidae
Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic.
Taxonomy and ...
)
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2013). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians''. Exeter, England: Pelagic Publishing Ltd. xiii + 262 pp. . ("Péron", p. 166).]
*''
Limnodynastes peronii'' (
A.M.C. Duméril &
Bibron, 1841) – striped marsh frog (
Limnodynastidae
Limnodynastidae, commonly known as the Australian ground frogs, is a family (biology), family of frogs found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands Regency, Aru Islands. They were formerly considered a subfamily of the Myobatrachidae, the ...
)
*''
Carlia peronii'' (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1839) – Timor rainbow skink (
Scincidae)
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Péron", p. 203).]
*''
Hemiergis peronii'' (
Gray
Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...
, 1831) - lowland earless skink (Scincidae)
*''
Acalyptophis peronii'' (A.M.C. Duméril, 1853) – spiny seasnake (
Elapidae
Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids , from , variant of "sea-fish") is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus '' Emydocephalus ...
)
*''
Lissodelphis peronii'' (
Lacépède, 1804) – southern right whale dolphin (
Delphinidae
Oceanic dolphins or Delphinidae are a widely distributed family of dolphins that live in the sea. Close to forty extant species are recognised. They include several big species whose common names contain "whale" rather than "dolphin", such as the ...
)
*''
Phyllorhiza peronlesueuri'' (
Goy
In modern Hebrew and Yiddish, (; , pl: , or ) is a term for a gentile, a non-Jew. Through Yiddish, the word has been adopted into English (pl: goyim or goys) also to mean "gentile", sometimes in a pejorative sense.
The Biblical Hebrew word ...
, 1990) – a jellyfish (
Mastigiidae
Mastigiidae is a family of Scyphozoa, true jellyfish. The family is native to the Indo-Pacific, but a species of ''Mastigias'' has been Introduced species, introduced to the West Atlantic, and ''Phyllorhiza punctata'' has been introduced to the W ...
).
[Collins, A. G.; Jarms, G.; Morandini, A. C. (2019). World List of Scyphozoa. Phyllorhiza peronlesueuri Goy, 1990. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=287185 on 2019-04-16] The specific epithet also honors Charles Alexandre Lesueur of the Baudin expedition.
Taxa described by Péron
In the 1807 first volume of ''Journey of Discovery to the Southern Lands'', Péron described a number of frog species collected on his travels, but most are considered
incertae sedis
or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...
today (i.e., ''Rana pollicifera'' and ''Rana pustulosa'' in
Anura, ''Hyla ianopoda, Hyla nebulosa, Hyla ocellata'' and ''Hyla rubeola'' in
Hylidae
Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic.
Taxonomy and ...
:
Pelodryadinae, and ''Bufo leucogaster'' and ''Bufo proteus'' in
Myobatrachidae
Myobatrachidae, commonly known as Australian ground frogs or Australian water frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia and New Guinea. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from species less than long, to the second-largest frog in ...
). ''Hyla cyanea'' was synonymised with ''
Litoria caerulea
The Australian green tree frog (''Ranoidea caerulea''/''Litoria caerulea''), also known as simply green tree frog in Australia, White's tree frog, or dumpy tree frog, is a species of tree frog native to Australia and New Guinea, with introdu ...
'' (
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 1790)White's treefrog, but ''Hyla citripoda'' does survive as a valid species, ''
Litoria citropa'' (Péron, 1807)Blue Mountains treefrog.
See also
:Taxa named by François Péron.
Publications

—— Observations sur l’anthropologie, ou l’Histoire naturelle de l’homme, la nécessité de s’occuper de l’avancement de cette science, et l’importance de l’admission sur la Flotte du capitaine Baudin d’un ou de plusieurs Naturalistes, spécialement chargés des Recherches à faire sur cet objet, Stoupe, Paris, an VIII
800
__NOTOC__
Year 800 ( DCCC) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 800th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 800th year of the 1st millennium, the 100th and last year of the 8th century, a ...
—— Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes, exécuté par ordre de sa Majesté, l’Empereur et Roi, sur les corvettes le Géographe, le Naturaliste et la goëlette le Casuarina, pendant les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, L’Imprimerie Impériale, 3 vols and atlas, Paris, 1807–17; vol. i, Historique, 1807; vol. ii, Historique
ompleted by L. de Freycinet 1816; vol. iii, Navigation et géographie
y L. de Freycinet 1815; Atlas historique
y C. A. Leseur & N. Petit 1817.
—— A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere Performed by Order of the Emperor Napoleon, During the Years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, printed for Richard Phillips, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, by B. McMillan, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, 1809.
Péron, F.
nd de Freycinet, L. Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes, fait par ordre du gouvernement, sur les corvettes le Géographe, le Naturaliste et la goëlette le Casuarina, pendant les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, 4 vols and atlas, Paris, 1824.
—— Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Lands, by François Péron, continued by Louis de Freycinet, 2nd edn 1824: Book IV, Comprising Chapters XXII to XXXIV (trans. C. Cornell; introduction by Anthony J. Brown), Friends of the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 2003.
—— Entdeckungs-Reise nach den Süd-Ländern ausgefürt auf Befehl Sr. Majestät des Kaisers und Königs, auf den Corvetten dem Geographen, dem Naturalisten und der Golette dem Casuarina, während der Jahre 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 und 1804 (trans. Ph. W. G. Hausleutner), J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, Tübingen, 2 vols, 1808–19.
Péron, F. A.
nd de Freycinet. L. Entdeckungsreise nach Australien unternommen auf Befehl Sr. Majestät des Kaisers von Frankreich und Königs von Italien mit den Korvetten der Geograph und der Naturalist, und der goelette Kasuarina in den Jahren 1800 bis 1804 (trans. T. F. Ehrmann), Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, Weimar, 2 vols, 1808–19.
Péron, F., ‘Discours préliminaire d’un travail sur les Méduses’, Procès-verbaux des séances de l’Académie, Classe des Sciences physiques et mathématiques, tome iv, séances du 21 novembre 1808, 28 novembre 1808 et 19 décembre 1808, pp. 136, 140, 147.
—— ‘Inventaire général de tous les objets relatifs à l’histoire de l’homme recueillis pendant le cours de l’expédition ou remis à M. Péron, naturaliste zoologiste du Gouvernement dans cette expédition, et présentés par M. Geoffroy et lui à Sa Majesté l’Impératrice Joséphine le 9 prairial an XII
9 May 1804�� in Copans, J. and Jamin, J. (eds), Aux origines de l’anthropologie française: Les Mémoires de la Société des Observateurs de l’Homme en l’an VIII, Le Sycomore, Paris, 1978, pp. 195–203.
—— ‘Mémoire sur le nouveau genre Pyrosoma’, Annales du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, tome 4, an XII (1804), pp. 437–46, planche 72.
—— ‘Mémoire sur les établissement anglais à la Nouvelle Hollande, à la Terre de Diemen et dans les archipels du grand océan Pacifique …‘, présentation, édition et notes de Roger Martin, transcription du manuscrit avec le concours de Jacqueline Bonnemains, préface de Joël Eymeret, Revue de l’Institut Napoléon, No. 176, 1998, I, pp. 1–187.
—— ‘Mémoire sur quelques faits zoologiques applicables à la théorie du globe, lu à la Classe des Sciences physiques et mathématiques de l’Institut national (Séance du 30 vendémiaire an XIII)’, Journal de physique, de chimie, d’histoire naturelle et des arts, vol. 59, 1804, pp. 463–80, planches i, ii.
—— ‘Notice d’un mémoire sur les animaux observés pendant la traversée de Timor au Cap Sud de la Terre de Van Diemen’, Bulletin des sciences de la Société philomatique, no. xi, 8e année, tome iii, no. 95, pluviôse an 13
ecember 1804–January 1805 pp. 269–70.
—— ‘Notice sur quelques applications utiles des observations météorologiques à l’hygiène navale’, Journal de physique, de chimie, d’histoire naturelle et des arts, vol. 67, 1808, pp. 29–43.
—— ‘Observations sur la dyssenterie des pays chauds et sur l’usage du bétel’, Journal de physique, de chimie, d’histoire naturelle et des arts, vol. 59, 1804, pp. 290–9.
—— ‘Réponse de M. Péron, naturaliste de l’expédition de découvertes aux Terres Australes aux observations critiques de M. Dumont sur le tablier des femmes Hottentotes’, Journal de physique, de chimie et d’histoire naturelle, tome lxi, 1805, pp. 210–17.
—— ‘Sur la température de la mer soit à sa surface, soit à diverses profondeurs’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 5, an XIII (1804), pp. 123–48 [English translation: ‘Fragment from Peron, with notices from other voyagers, on the Temperature of the Sea, at great depths, far from Land’, American Journal of Science, vol. xvii, 1830, pp. 295–9].
Péron, F. and Lesueur, C.-A., ‘Observations sur le tablier des femmes Hottentotes, avec une note sur l’expédition française aux Terres Australes, et une étude critique sur la stéatopygie et le tablier des femmes Boschimanes, par le Dr Raphaël Blanchard’, Bulletin de la Société zoologique de France, vol. 8, 1883, pp. 15–33.
—— ‘Des caractères génériques et spécifiques de toutes les espèces de Méduses connues jusqu’à ce jour’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 14, 1809, pp. 325–66.
—— ‘Histoire de la famille des Molluques Ptéropodes’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 15, 1810, pp. 57–69, 2 planches.
—— ‘Histoire du genre Firole: Firola’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 15, 1810, pp. 76–82.
—— ‘Histoire générale et particulière de tous les animaux qui composent la famillle des Méduses’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 14, 1809, pp. 218–28.
—— ‘La conservation des diverses espèces d’animation dans l’alcool’, Journal de physique de chimie, d’histoire naturelle et des arts, vol. 71, octobre 1810, pp. 265–88.
—— ‘Notice sur l’habitation des animaux marins’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 15, 1810, pp. 287–92.
—— ‘Notice sur l’habitation des phoques’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 15, 1810, pp. 293–00.
—— ‘Sur les Méduses du genre Equorée’, Annales du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, tome 15, 1810, pp. 41–56.
—— ‘Tableau des caractères génériques et spécifiques de toutes les espèces de Méduses connues jusqu’à ce jour’, Annales du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, tome 14, 1809
810 pp. 325–66.
See also
*
Tasmanian Aborigines
*
Truganini
*
European and American voyages of scientific exploration
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...
References
Further reading
*
Edward Duyker, François Péron: An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, Miegunyah/MUP, Melb., 2006, pp. 349,
inner Frank Broeze Maritime History Prize, 2007
External links
Biography of Péron
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peron, Francois
1775 births
1810 deaths
People from Cérilly, Allier
French naturalists
Explorers of Australia
Explorers of Western Australia
Shark Bay
19th-century French explorers
19th-century French naturalists
Tuberculosis deaths in France
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis