Paul Gervais
Encyclopedia
For the Canadian parliamentarian see Paul Mullins Gervais
Paul Mullins Gervais
Paul Mullins Gervais was a Liberal party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was a lawyer.From 1955 to 1967, Gervais served as an alderman of Sherbrooke....



Paul Gervais full name François Louis Paul Gervaise (September 26, 1816 - February 10, 1879) was a French
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...

 palaeontologist and entomologist.

Biography

Gervais was born at Paris
Paris
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...

, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 and of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, and in 1835 he began palaeontological research as assistant in the laboratory of comparative anatomy at the 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 1841 he obtained the chair of zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

 and comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...

 at the Faculty of Sciences in Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

, of which he was in 1856 appointed dean. In 1848-1852 appeared his important work Zoologie et paléontologie françaises, supplementary to the palaeontological publications 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...

 and Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville was a French zoologist and anatomist.Blainville was born at Arques, near Dieppe. In about 1796 he went to Paris to study painting, but he ultimately devoted himself to natural history, and attracted the attention of Georges Cuvier, for whom he occasionally...

; of this a second and greatly improved edition was issued in 1859. In 1865 he accepted the professorship of zoology at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, vacant through the death of Louis Pierre Gratiolet
Louis Pierre Gratiolet
Louis Pierre Gratiolet was a French anatomist and zoologist who was a native of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde. He succeeded Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire as professor of zoology to the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Paris.Gratiolet is remembered for his work in neuroanatomy,...

; this post he left in 1868 for the chair of comparative anatomy at the Paris museum of natural history, the anatomical collections of which were greatly enriched by his exertions. He died in Paris on the 10th of February 1879.

Works

Apart from the works mentioned previously he also wrote:
  • with Charles Athanase Walckenaer Histoire naturelle des insectes (4 vols., 1836-1847)
  • Zoologie et paléontologie françaises (1848-1852)
  • Histoire naturelle des Mammifères (1853)
  • Zoologie médicale (1859), mit Pierre-Joseph van Beneden
    Pierre-Joseph van Beneden
    Pierre-Joseph van Beneden was a Belgian zoologist and paleontologist.Born in Mechelen, Belgium, he studied medicine at the University of Louvain, and studied zoology in Paris under Georges Cuvier...

  • Recherches sur l'ancienneté de l'homme et la période quaternaire (1867)
  • Zoologie et Paléontologie générales (1867)
  • Ostéographie des cétacés vivants et fossiles (1869), mit Pierre-Joseph van Beneden

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK