Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
botanist, invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
zoologist, and entomologist.
Biography
Bosc was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the son of Paul Bosc d’Antic, a medical doctor and chemist. He studied at Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, where he was the pupil of botanist Jean-François Durande and chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton-Morveau. Being unable to become an artilleryman, he worked initially for the office of the controller general
Controller-General of Finances
The Controller-General of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1661 to 1791. The position replaced the former position of Superintendent of Finances , which was abolished with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet.- History :The term "contrôleur général" in...
and then for the comptroller of the postal service. In time he took courses in botany under Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu and met botanist René Desfontaines
René Louiche Desfontaines
René Louiche Desfontaines was a French botanist.Desfontaines was born near Tremblay in Brittany. He attended the Collège de Rennes and in 1773 went to Paris to study medicine. His interest in botany originated from lectures at the Jardin des Plantes given by Louis Guillaume Lemonnier...
and naturalist Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet , French naturalist, was born at Montpellier, and was educated for the medical profession...
. He also took up with the celebrated couple Jean Marie Roland
Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière
Jean-Marie Roland, de la Platière was a French manufacturer in Lyon and became the leader of the Girondist faction in the French Revolution, largely influenced in this direction by his wife, Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platiere...
and Madame Roland
Madame Roland
Marie-Jeanne Roland, better known simply as Madame Roland and born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon , was, together with her husband Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière, a supporter of the French Revolution and influential member of the Girondist faction...
and formed a lasting relationship with Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others...
.
He declined to accompany Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse on his expedition around the world. Together with André Thouin
André Thouin
André Thouin was a French botanist who was born in Paris. He studied botany under Bernard de Jussieu . In 1793 Thouin attained the chair of horticulture at Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Thouin was a good friend of U.S...
, Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet
Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet , French naturalist, was born at Montpellier, and was educated for the medical profession...
, Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison
Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison
Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison was an antiquary and naturalist erudite in various domains, who followed Jean-Jacques Barthélemy as curator of the Cabinet des médailles et antiques of the former French royal library and took an interest in medieval art, which was just beginning to attract...
and Pierre Willemet, Bosc participated, in 1787, in the founding of the first Linnean society in the world, the Société linnéenne de Paris. They were soon joined by other naturalists. This society was dissolved in 1789. Bosc was also an active member of the Philomatic Society of Paris
Philomatic society
A philomatic society is an association of persons who love sciences. The term "philomatic" is no longer in use. The philomatic societies were influential in the nineteenth century...
.
His friendship with Roland allowed Bosc to rise to a substantial position, but when that minister fell into disgrace he was dismissed on May 31, 1793. Bosc affiliated himself with the Jacobin Club
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
. He hid away on Club property in the forest of Montmorency and sheltered several people persecuted by the Terror, including Roland and Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux. It was at this time he became tutor to Eudora Roland, Roland's daughter. La Réveliière-Lépeaux, having become a member of the Directoire
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
, allowed Bosc to leave for the United States, first as vice-consul to Wilmington in 1797, then as consul to New York in 1798.
Bosc was brought back to France, where he served for a time as administrator of hospitals and prisons and obtained, in 1803, after a sojourn in Switzerland and Italy courtesy of Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
, a position in the gardens and nurseries of Versailles. He gave his collections to his naturalist friends. Thus, Fabricius et Guillaume-Antoine Olivier
Guillaume-Antoine Olivier
Guillaume-Antoine Olivier was a French entomologist.He was the author of Entomologie, ou histoire naturelle des Insectes and Le Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman, l'Égypte et la Perse . He was a close friend of Johan Christian Fabricius and a patron of Pierre André Latreille.-References:...
received his insects; François Marie Daudin
François Marie Daudin
François Marie Daudin was a French zoologist.With legs paralyzed by childhood disease, he studied of physics and natural history, but ended up being devoted to the latter.Daudin wrote in 1799–1800...
, his birds; Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille
Pierre André Latreille was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare species he found in the prison, Necrobia ruficollis...
, his reptiles; and the comte de Lacépède, his fish. He was also the friend and protector of naturalists Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist. He was born at Agen...
and Jean-Marie Léon Dufour
Léon Jean Marie Dufour
Léon Jean Marie Dufour was a French medical doctor and naturalist .Between 1799 and 1806 he studied medicine in Paris then returned to Saint-Sever in the Landes...
.
In 1806, he was elected to membership in the Académie des sciences
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 research...
in the rural husbandry section. In 1825, he succeeded André Thouin
André Thouin
André Thouin was a French botanist who was born in Paris. He studied botany under Bernard de Jussieu . In 1793 Thouin attained the chair of horticulture at Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Thouin was a good friend of U.S...
to the chair of plant culture at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
He died unexpectedly not many years later in Paris, in 1828.
Legacy
Bosc's legacy lies mainly in the fields of agronomyAgronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
and natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
. He was the author of three volumes of Suites à Buffon
Suites à Buffon
Les Suites à Buffon is a French nineteenth-century scientific publicationLes Suites à Buffon carries the complete title Suites à Buffon formant avec les œuvres de cet auteur un cours complet d'histoire naturelle embrassant les trois règnes de la nature, confié aux plus célèbres naturalistes et...
, edited by René Richard Louis Castel
René Richard Louis Castel
René Richard Louis Castel was a French poet and naturist.The genus Castela was named after him, honoring his works in botany.- Works :* Histoire naturelle des poissons...
: Histoire naturelle des Coquilles, contenant leur description, les mœurs des animaux qui les habitent et leurs usages (Paris, 5 volumes, 1801); Histoire naturelle des Vers (Paris, 2 volumes, 1801); and Histoire naturelle des Crustacés (Paris, 3 volumes, 1802).
Bosc participated in the editing of the Nouveau Dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle appliquée aux arts, principalement à l'agriculture, à l'économie rurale et domestique, under the direction of Jean-François-Pierre Deterville and Sonnini de Manoncourt (Paris, 24 volumes, 1803–1804, re-edited in 36 volumes, 1816–1819), and the Nouveau Cours complet d'agriculture théorique et pratique, also directed by Deterville (Paris, 13 volumes, 1809, re-edited in 16 volumes, 1821–1823). Bosc also supervised the editing of Théâtre d'agriculture by Olivier de Serres
Olivier de Serres
Olivier de Serres was a French author and soil scientist whose Théâtre d'Agriculture was the text book of French agriculture in the 17th century..Serres was born at Villeneuve-de-Berg, Ardèche...
, published by the Société centrale d'agriculture de Paris, whose Annales he also published.
Bosc's grave lies in a little cemetery in the forest of Montmorency
Montmorency, Val-d'Oise
Montmorency is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Montmorency was the fief of the Montmorency family, one of the oldest and most distinguished families of the French nobility...
, a National Forest open to the public, in the commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
of Saint-Prix
Saint-Prix
Saint-Prix may refer to the following places in France:* Saint-Prix, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier* Saint-Prix, Ardèche, a commune in the department of Ardèche* Saint-Prix, Saône-et-Loire, a commune in the department of Saône-et-Loire...
in the Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as "quatre-vingt quinze" or "neuf cinq"...
.
Bosc's insect collection is shared between the Natural History Museum of Geneva
Natural History Museum of Geneva
The Natural History Museum of Geneva is a natural history museum in Geneva, Switzerland....
, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.- History :The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution...
in Paris, and the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
in London (Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat
Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat
Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat was a French entomologist, born 29 March 1799 at Paris and died16 December 1884 in the same city.In government service in Paris, this amateur entomologist studied, mainly, Coleoptera and birds...
collection).