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Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (28 February 1761 – 17 January 1807) was a French naturalist who contributed primarily to botany. He was born in Montpellier, where he was educated, and travelled to Morocco, Spain, the Canary Islands, and Southern Africa before returning to France and serving as director of the botanical garden in Montpellier. The tree Broussonetia is named after him.
Broussonet was born in Montpellier where his father, François Broussonet (1722-1792), was a physician and professor of medicine at the Université de Montpellier. His brother, Victor, studied there and later became its dean. Henri Fouquet (1727-1806), a professor at the medical school, was a relative, as was Jean-Antoine Chaptal (1756-1832), who subsequently became minister of the interior.
As a child, Pierre showed a passion for natural history, cluttering his home with specimen collections. In school, he excelled in classical studies in Montpellier, Montélimar, and Toulouse. Because of family tradition, he was headed toward studying medicine, which, at that time, included the study of the natural sciences which had not yet split off to form a separate discipline. Antoine Gouan (1733-1821), a convinced Linnaean, taught at the Montpellier medical school - apparently it was from him that Broussonet learned of Linnaeus’ work. His thesis was entitled Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire de la respiration des poissons, which he defended in 1778. He received his doctorate on 27 May 1779, at the age of eighteen.
Broussonet’s thesis was unanimously praised. Despite his youth, the professors of the University of Montpellier asked that he be made his father’s successor when the latter retired (a rare but not uncommon request). The request was not granted, in spite of Broussonet himself traveling to Paris to plead his cause. But while in Paris he established friendships scholars who made it possible for him to continue his studies on fish. Although the Paris ichthyological collections surpassed those that Broussonet had worked from in the South, they were not comprehensive enough for the classification work he wished to pursue. Ultimately, he went to England to seek the specimens needed for the morphological and systematic work he had in mind.
1780 London offered Broussonet all he could wish for: an active scientific community; naturalists already embracing Linnaeus’ ideas; collections rich in new species; and an influential friend, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820). With his promotion, Broussonet was elected to the Royal Society.
Banks had brought back from Cook's first expedition a considerable number of exotic fish, which he turned over to Broussonet for study, thereby making it possible for Broussonet to start his Ichthyologiae Decas I, which was to contain descriptions of 1,200 species. The first ten sections, in which he noted the important discovery of the Pseudobranchia, were published in 1782 (Broussonet's Ichthyologia was never completed).
When Broussonet returned to his homeland in 1782, he brought a Chinese maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba), given by Sir Joseph Banks and the first specimen of this tree imported into France. This species is often called a living fossil because it was first observed by Europeans in fossil records before they discovered living trees in the Zhejiang province in eastern China. He presented this rare tree to Gouan, then Directeur du Jardin des plantes de Montpellier, who planted it in the garden in 1788, where it can still be found. Broussonet also spent several months botanizing in the South of France and Catalonia with John Sibthorp (1758-1796) with Father Pierre André Pourret (1754-1818).
When he returned to Paris in 1785, Broussonet presented some of his Notes ichthyologiques before the Académie des Sciences. Their merit and the support of Louis Jean-Marie D’Aubenton (1716-1799), who, although anti-Linnaean, was friendly toward Broussonet, resulted in his election to the academy.
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Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (28 February 1761 – 17 January 1807) was a French naturalist who contributed primarily to botany. He was born in Montpellier, where he was educated, and travelled to Morocco, Spain, the Canary Islands, and Southern Africa before returning to France and serving as director of the botanical garden in Montpellier. The tree Broussonetia is named after him.
Broussonet was born in Montpellier where his father, François Broussonet (1722-1792), was a physician and professor of medicine at the Université de Montpellier. His brother, Victor, studied there and later became its dean. Henri Fouquet (1727-1806), a professor at the medical school, was a relative, as was Jean-Antoine Chaptal (1756-1832), who subsequently became minister of the interior.
As a child, Pierre showed a passion for natural history, cluttering his home with specimen collections. In school, he excelled in classical studies in Montpellier, Montélimar, and Toulouse. Because of family tradition, he was headed toward studying medicine, which, at that time, included the study of the natural sciences which had not yet split off to form a separate discipline. Antoine Gouan (1733-1821), a convinced Linnaean, taught at the Montpellier medical school - apparently it was from him that Broussonet learned of Linnaeus’ work. His thesis was entitled Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire de la respiration des poissons, which he defended in 1778. He received his doctorate on 27 May 1779, at the age of eighteen.
Broussonet’s thesis was unanimously praised. Despite his youth, the professors of the University of Montpellier asked that he be made his father’s successor when the latter retired (a rare but not uncommon request). The request was not granted, in spite of Broussonet himself traveling to Paris to plead his cause. But while in Paris he established friendships scholars who made it possible for him to continue his studies on fish. Although the Paris ichthyological collections surpassed those that Broussonet had worked from in the South, they were not comprehensive enough for the classification work he wished to pursue. Ultimately, he went to England to seek the specimens needed for the morphological and systematic work he had in mind.
1780 London offered Broussonet all he could wish for: an active scientific community; naturalists already embracing Linnaeus’ ideas; collections rich in new species; and an influential friend, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820). With his promotion, Broussonet was elected to the Royal Society.
Banks had brought back from Cook's first expedition a considerable number of exotic fish, which he turned over to Broussonet for study, thereby making it possible for Broussonet to start his Ichthyologiae Decas I, which was to contain descriptions of 1,200 species. The first ten sections, in which he noted the important discovery of the Pseudobranchia, were published in 1782 (Broussonet's Ichthyologia was never completed).
When Broussonet returned to his homeland in 1782, he brought a Chinese maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba), given by Sir Joseph Banks and the first specimen of this tree imported into France. This species is often called a living fossil because it was first observed by Europeans in fossil records before they discovered living trees in the Zhejiang province in eastern China. He presented this rare tree to Gouan, then Directeur du Jardin des plantes de Montpellier, who planted it in the garden in 1788, where it can still be found. Broussonet also spent several months botanizing in the South of France and Catalonia with John Sibthorp (1758-1796) with Father Pierre André Pourret (1754-1818).
When he returned to Paris in 1785, Broussonet presented some of his Notes ichthyologiques before the Académie des Sciences. Their merit and the support of Louis Jean-Marie D’Aubenton (1716-1799), who, although anti-Linnaean, was friendly toward Broussonet, resulted in his election to the academy.