The Société de biologie () is a
learned society
A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...
founded in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1848.
The society was conceived during the
French Revolution of 1848. The members of the society held regular meetings and published the proceedings in a new scientific journal. The founding members of the society included
Claude Bernard, the naturalist
Charles-Philippe Robin, and the surgeon
Eugène Follin. Its first president was the doctor and
dermatologist
Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medi ...
Pierre Rayer.
Bernard was unanimously elected president of the society in 1867 upon Rayer's death.
[ Historian Mirko Grmek said the society brought together the best physiologists and naturalists in Paris, and that Bernard regularly attended the weekly meetings. During 1849 he spoke at nearly all the sessions.][ Of the 227 scientific articles published by Bernard from 1848 onwards, 79 of them were published in the ''Comptes-rendus et Mémoires de la Société de Biologie''.] Marcellin Berthelot considered Bernard the "star and favourite" of the society.
References
Learned societies of France
1848 establishments in France
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