Name Jean Bory | ||
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Died December 22, 1846, Paris, France | ||
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (6 July 1778 – 22 December 1846) was a French naturalist.
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Life
He was born at Agen. As a preccious naturalist he was instrumental in freeing from prison Pierre André Latreille, whose early work he had read, saving Latreille's life. He was sent as naturalist with Captain Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australia in 1798, but left the vessel at Mauritius, and spent two years in exploring Réunion and other islands in the Indian Ocean. Joining the army on his return, he was present at the battle of Ulm and battle of Austerlitz, and in 1808 went to Spain with Marshal Soult. In 1815, he supported Napoleon and opposed the Bourbons. Consequently, he was proscribed after the Bourbon restoration. But after several years of exile, he was allowed to return quietly to Paris in 1820. In 1829 he headed a scientific expedition to the Peloponnese, and in 1839 he had charge of the exploration of Algeria.
He was editor of the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle (Classical Dictionary of Natural History). His own publications include Essais sur les Iles Fortunées (1802; Essays on the Fortunate Islands, or Canary Islands), Voyage dans les Iles d'Afrique (1803; Travels in the Islands of Africa), Voyage souterrain, ou description du plateau de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht et de ses vastes cryptes (1821; Travels Underground, or Description of St. Pietersberg in Maastricht and Its Great Caves), L'Homme, essai zoologique sur le genre humain (1827; Man: Zoological Essay on the Human Species), in which he adopted a polygenist perspective. and Resume de la géographie de la Peninsule (1838; Summary of the Geography of the Iberian Peninsula).
Legacy
He was a proponent of transmutation of species and a supporter of Lamarckian evolution. According to historian Adrian Desmond "Bory was a leading anti-Cuvierian materialist who blended the best of Lamarck's philosophy with Geoffroy's higher anatomy."
From 1822, Bory edited the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. This volume contained information about Lamarck and the species debate and is notable for having traveled with Charles Darwin on the Beagle.