Pierre Barrère (1690,

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

– 1755, Perpignan) was a French physician and naturalist. Pierre Barrère practised in Perpignan from 1717. In 1722, he voyaged to

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...

where he stayed for five years. Back in Perpignan, he became professor of botany at the university and doctor in the military hospital.

Ornithology

In 1745 he published his ''Ornithologiae Specimen Novum, sive Series Avium in Ruscinone, Pyrenaeis Montibus, atque in Galliâ Aequinoctiali Observatarum, in Classes, genera & species, novâ methodo, digesta'' at Perpignan. His classification, entirely based on the form of the beak and feet, divided the birds into four groups : les palmipèdes, les demi-palmipèdes, les fissipèdes et les demi-fissipèdes. Within these groups there was no rank above

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and species and these were more or less disordered. His very artificial classification was soon abandoned. The work was dedicated to Buffon.

Medicine

He published ''Observations anatomiques tirées des ouvertures d’un grand nombre de cadavres'' in 1753 at Perpignan. As anonymous the ''Dissertation sur la cause physique de la couleur des nègres, de la qualité de leurs cheveux, et de la dégénération de l’un et de l’autre'', Paris, chez Pierre-Guillaume Simon, 1741.

Fossils

He published in 1746 his ''Observations sur l'origine et la formation des pierres figurées, et sur celles qui, tant extérieurement qu'intérieurement, ont une figure régulière & déterminée'' at Paris. He was interested in the origin and the nature of fossils and described many from Catalonia and the Pyrenees. He proposed that the fossils of marine mollusks proved the presence of an ancient ocean.

His account of Guyana

Barrère published two more works, these on his observations in

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. These were ''Essai sur l'histoire naturelle de la France équinoxiale, ou Dénombrement des plantes, des animaux et des minéraux qui se trouvent dans l'isle de Cayenne, les isles de Remire, sur les côtes de la mer et dans le continent de la Guyane'' (1741) and ''Nouvelle Relation de la France équinoxiale, contenant la description des côtes de la Guiane, de l'île de Cayenne, le commerce de cette colonie, les divers changements arrivés dans ce pays, et les mœurs et coutumes des différents peuples sauvages qui l'habitent; avec les figures dessinées sur les lieux'' (1743).

References

Michael Walters (2003). ''A Concise History of Ornithology''. Yale University Press (New Haven, Connecticut) 255 p. Translated from French Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrere, Pierre 1690 births 1755 deaths French ornithologists 18th-century French physicians French zoologists People from Perpignan