1.
Brive-la-Gaillarde
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Brive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department and it has around 50,000 inhabitants, while the population of the urban area was 89,260 in 1999. Although it is by far the biggest commune in Corrèze, the capital is Tulle, in French popular culture, the town is associated with a song by Georges Brassens. Even though the inhabitants settled around the 1st century, the city started to grow much later. From around the 5th century onwards, the city began to develop around a church dedicated to Saint-Martin-lEspagnol. During the 12th century walls were built around the city and during the Hundred Years War a second wall was built and these fortifications no longer exist and have been replaced by boulevards. The commune was named Brive until 1919, when it was renamed Brive-la-Gaillarde, the word Gaillarde probably stands for bravery or strength in the citys name, but it can also refer to the citys walls. Brive now extends outside of its boundaries into Malemort and Ussac. Brive-la-Gaillarde was the first city of Occupied France to liberate itself by its own means, for this, the city received the “Croix de guerre 1939-1945” military decoration. The medieval centre is mainly a commercial district with retail shops and it is also the location of the city hall, the main police station, and the Labenche museum. One notable landmark outside the city is the Pont Cardinal. The A20 motorway connects Brive with Limoges and Toulouse, the A89 with Bordeaux, the city is home to a rugby union team, CA Brive. Nicolas Ernault des Bruslys, born on 7 August 1757 in Brive-la-Gaillarde and died on 25 September 1809 in Reunion, is a French general of the Revolution and the Empire. Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, marshal of France Michel Labrousse, scholar of Roman history David Feuerwerker is a rabbi and professor of French Jewish history
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
University of Paris
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The University of Paris, metonymically known as the Sorbonne, was a university in Paris, France. Emerging around 1150 as an associated with the cathedral school of Notre Dame de Paris. Vast numbers of popes, royalties, scientists and intellectuals were educated at the University of Paris, following the turbulence of the French Revolution, education was suspended in 1793 whereafter its faculties were partly reorganised by Napoleon as the University of France. In 1896, it was renamed again to the University of Paris, in 1970, following the May 1968 events, the university was divided into 13 autonomous universities. Others, like Panthéon-Sorbonne University, chose to be multidisciplinary, in 1150, the future University of Paris was a student-teacher corporation operating as an annex of the Notre-Dame cathedral school. The university had four faculties, Arts, Medicine, Law, the Faculty of Arts was the lowest in rank, but also the largest, as students had to graduate there in order to be admitted to one of the higher faculties. The students were divided into four nationes according to language or regional origin, France, Normandy, Picardy, the last came to be known as the Alemannian nation. Recruitment to each nation was wider than the names might imply, the faculty and nation system of the University of Paris became the model for all later medieval universities. Under the governance of the Church, students wore robes and shaved the tops of their heads in tonsure, students followed the rules and laws of the Church and were not subject to the kings laws or courts. This presented problems for the city of Paris, as students ran wild, students were often very young, entering the school at age 13 or 14 and staying for 6 to 12 years. Three schools were especially famous in Paris, the palatine or palace school, the school of Notre-Dame, the decline of royalty brought about the decline of the first. The other two were ancient but did not have much visibility in the early centuries, the glory of the palatine school doubtless eclipsed theirs, until it completely gave way to them. These two centres were much frequented and many of their masters were esteemed for their learning, the first renowned professor at the school of Ste-Geneviève was Hubold, who lived in the tenth century. Not content with the courses at Liège, he continued his studies at Paris, entered or allied himself with the chapter of Ste-Geneviève, and attracted many pupils via his teaching. Distinguished professors from the school of Notre-Dame in the century include Lambert, disciple of Fulbert of Chartres, Drogo of Paris, Manegold of Germany. Three other men who added prestige to the schools of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève were William of Champeaux, Abélard, humanistic instruction comprised grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. To the higher instruction belonged dogmatic and moral theology, whose source was the Scriptures and it was completed by the study of Canon law. The School of Saint-Victor arose to rival those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève and it was founded by William of Champeaux when he withdrew to the Abbey of Saint-Victor
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Entomology
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Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use, Entomology is rooted in nearly all human cultures from prehistoric times, primarily in the context of agriculture, but scientific study began only as recently as the 16th century. William Kirby is widely considered as the father of Entomology, in collaboration with William Spence, he published a definitive entomological encyclopedia, Introduction to Entomology, regarded as the subjects foundational text. He also helped to found the Royal Entomological Society in London in 1833, one of the earliest such societies in the world, earlier antecedents, such as the Aurelian society date back to the 1740s. There has also been a history of people becoming entomologists through museum curation and research assistance, insect identification is an increasingly common hobby, with butterflies and dragonflies being the most popular. Most insects can easily be recognized to such as Hymenoptera or Coleoptera. However, insects other than Lepidoptera are typically identifiable to genus or species only through the use of Identification keys and Monographs. Because the class Insecta contains a large number of species and the characteristics separating them are unfamiliar, and often subtle. This has led to the development of automated species identification systems targeted on insects, for example, Daisy, ABIS, SPIDA, in 1994 the Entomological Society of America launched a new professional certification program for the pest control industry called The Associate Certified Entomologist. To qualify as a true entomologist an individual would require an advanced degree. Trichopterology - caddis flies Vespology - Social wasps Like other scientific specialties, entomologists have a number of local, national, there are also many organizations specializing in specific subareas. C. Y. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas University of Minnesota, big Fleas Have Little Fleas, How Discoveries of Invertebrate Diseases Are Advancing Modern Science University of Arizona Press, Tucson,208 pages, ISBN 0-8165-2544-7. Triplehorn, Charles A. and Norman F. Johnson, borror and DeLongs Introduction to the Study of Insects, 7th edition, Thomas Brooks/Cole. — a classic textbook in North America, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Capinera, JL.2008. Iowa State Entomology Index of Internet Resources, archived from the original on 2006-11-14. Archived from the original on 2006-12-06, archived from the original on 2007-02-07. Compendium of References on Flies and Disease, archived from the original on 2006-10-15. USDA Collecting methods. Detailed instructions Arthropa Extensive photo album sorted by topic, Tereshkin Scientific illustration in entomology Tereshkin, A.2008, Methodology of a scientific drawings preparation in entomology on example of ichneumon flies
6.
Arachnology
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Arachnology is the scientific study of spiders and related animals such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen, collectively called arachnids. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists, the word arachnology derives from Greek ἀράχνη, arachnē, spider, and -λογία, -logia. Arachnologists are primarily responsible for classifying arachnids and studying aspects of their biology, in the popular imagination they are sometimes referred to as spider experts. Other arachnologists perform research on the anatomy or physiology of arachnids, including the venom of spiders, others study the impact of spiders in agricultural ecosystems and whether they can be used as biological control agents. Arachnology can be broken down into more specific specialties and these topics include, acarology - the study of ticks and mites. Araneology - the study of spiders, scorpiology - the study of scorpions. Arachnologists are served by a number of societies, both national and international in scope. Their main role is to encourage the exchange of ideas between researchers, to meetings and congresses, and in a number of cases to publish academic journals. Some are also involved in outreach programs, like the European spider of the year. Many tarantulas thus become more known by their common names such as the Mexican redknee tarantula. Various societies now focus on the husbandry, care, study and captive breeding of tarantulas and they also typically produce journals or newsletters with articles and advice on these subjects
7.
National Museum of Natural History (France)
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The main museum is located in Paris, France, on the left bank of the River Seine. It was founded in 1793 during the French Revolution, but was established earlier in 1635, the museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution. Its origins lie, however, in the Jardin royal des plantes médicinales created by King Louis XIII in 1635, the royal institution remarkably survived the French Revolution by being reorganized in 1793 as a republican Muséum national dHistoire naturelle with twelve professorships of equal rank. Some of its early professors included eminent comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier and evolutionary pioneers Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, the museums aims were to instruct the public, put together collections and conduct scientific research. It continued to flourish during the 19th century, and, particularly under the direction of chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, for example, during the period that Henri Becquerel held the chair for Applied Physics at the Muséum he discovered the radiation properties of uranium. A decree of 12 December 1891 ended this phase, returning the museum to an emphasis on natural history, after receiving financial autonomy in 1907, it began a new phase of growth, opening facilities throughout France during the interwar years. In recent decades, it has directed its research and education efforts at the effects on the environment of human exploitation, in French public administration, the Muséum is classed as a grand établissement of higher education. In the 19th century Argentine naturalist Francisco Javier Muñiz developed a collection that he intended to be used to create a history museum. The artifacts were sent to Juan Manuel de Rosas, the dictator of the Argentine Federation, Rosas, in an attempt to build alliances overseas, sent collected fossils to Jean Henri Dupotet, Rear Admiral of the French Navy. Dupotet then sent them to Paris, in France, the Muñiz collection ended up in the National Museum of Natural History where they were studied by Paul Gervais. When Fusée Aublet died at Paris in 1778, he left his herbarium to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and it was eventually acquired by the Muséum national dHistoire naturelle in 1953. The museum has as its mission both research and public diffusion of knowledge and it is organized into seven research and three diffusion departments. The museum comprises fourteen sites throughout France with four in Paris, the museums Menagerie is also located here. The herbarium of the museum, referred to by code P, the designation at CITES is FR 75A. It publishes the botanical periodical Adansonia and journals on the flora of New Caledonia, Madagascar and Comoro Islands, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Cameroon, the Musée de lHomme is also in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement. It houses displays in ethnography and physical anthropology, including artifacts, fossils, the transformation of the Jardin from the medicinal garden of the King to a national public museum of natural history required the creation of twelve chaired positions. Over the ensuing years the number of Chairs and their subject areas evolved, the list of Chairs of the Muséum national dhistoire naturelle includes major figures in the history of the Natural sciences. Early chaired positions were held by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, René Desfontaines and Georges Cuvier, the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy and other parts of Jardin des Plantes was a source of inspiration for French graphic novelist Jacques Tardi
8.
Zoology
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The term is derived from Ancient Greek ζῷον, zōion, i. e. animal and λόγος, logos, i. e. knowledge, study. The history of zoology traces the study of the kingdom from ancient to modern times. This ancient work was developed in the Middle Ages by Muslim physicians. During the Renaissance and early period, zoological thought was revolutionized in Europe by a renewed interest in empiricism. Microscopy revealed the unknown world of microorganisms, laying the groundwork for cell theory. The growing importance of natural theology, partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy, over the 18th and 19th centuries, zoology became an increasingly professional scientific discipline. Naturalists began to reject essentialism and consider the importance of extinction, cell theory provided a new perspective on the fundamental basis of life. These developments, as well as the results from embryology and paleontology, were synthesized in Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1859, Darwin placed the theory of evolution on a new footing, by his discovery of a process by which organic evolution can occur. Darwin gave new direction to morphology and physiology, by uniting them in a biological theory. The end of the 19th century saw the fall of spontaneous generation, cell biology studies the structural and physiological properties of cells, including their behavior, interactions, and environment. This is done on both the microscopic and molecular levels, for single-celled organisms such as bacteria as well as the cells in multicellular organisms such as humans. Understanding the structure and function of cells is fundamental to all of the biological sciences, the similarities and differences between cell types are particularly relevant to molecular biology. Anatomy considers the forms of macroscopic structures such as organs and organ systems and it focuses on how organs and organ systems work together in the bodies of humans and animals, in addition to how they work independently. Anatomy and cell biology are two studies that are related, and can be categorized under structural studies. Physiology studies the mechanical, physical, and biochemical processes of living organisms by attempting to understand how all of the function as a whole. The theme of structure to function is central to biology, for example, what is learned about the physiology of yeast cells can also apply to human cells. The field of animal physiology extends the tools and methods of physiology to non-human species
9.
Arthropod
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An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs
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French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
11.
Beetle
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Beetles are a group of insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings is hardened into wing-cases, elytra, the Coleoptera, with about 400,000 species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms, new species are discovered frequently. The largest of all families, the Curculionidae with some 70,000 member species and they are found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions. They interact with their ecosystems in several ways, beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Beetles typically have a hard exoskeleton including the elytra, though some such as the rove beetles have very short elytra while blister beetles have softer elytra. Some, such as, stag beetles have a sexual dimorphism. Many beetles are aposematic, with colours and patterns warning of their toxicity. Many beetles, including those that live in places, have effective camouflage. Beetles are prominent in human culture, from the sacred scarabs of ancient Egypt to beetlewing art and use as pets or fighting insects for entertainment, many beetle groups are brightly and attractively coloured making them objects of collection and decorative displays. Over 300 species are used as food, mostly as larvae, species widely consumed include mealworms, however, the major impact of beetles on human life is as agricultural, forestry, and horticultural pests. Serious pests include the boll weevil of cotton, the Colorado potato beetle, the coconut hispine beetle, most beetles, however, do not cause economic damage and many, such as the lady beetles and dung beetles are beneficial by helping to control insect pests. The name of the order, Coleoptera, comes from the Greek koleopteros, given to the group by Aristotle for their elytra, hardened shield-like forewings, from koleos, sheath. The English name beetle comes from the Old English word bitela, little biter, related to bītan, another Old English name for beetle is ceafor, chafer, used in names such as cockchafer, from the Proto-Germanic *kabraz-. Beetles are by far the largest order of insects, the roughly 400,000 species make up about 40% of all species so far described. The four estimates made use of host-specificity relationships, ratios with other taxa, plant, beetle ratios, and extrapolations based on body size by year of description. The heaviest beetle, indeed the heaviest insect stage, is the larva of the beetle, Goliathus goliatus, which can attain a mass of at least 115 g. Adult male goliath beetles are the heaviest beetle in its stage, weighing 70–100 g. Adult elephant beetles, Megasoma elephas and Megasoma actaeon often reach 50 g and 10 cm, the longest beetle is the Hercules beetle Dynastes hercules, with a maximum overall length of at least 16.7 cm including the very long pronotal horn
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Species
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In biology, a species is the basic unit of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. While this definition is often adequate, looked at more closely it is problematic, for example, with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, or in a ring species, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear. Other ways of defining species include similarity of DNA, morphology, all species are given a two-part name, a binomial. The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs, the second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet. For example, Boa constrictor is one of four species of the Boa genus, Species were seen from the time of Aristotle until the 18th century as fixed kinds that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being. In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time, Charles Darwins 1859 book The Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection. Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal transfer, and species may become extinct for a variety of reasons. In his biology, Aristotle used the term γένος to mean a kind, such as a bird or fish, a kind was distinguished by its attributes, for instance, a bird has feathers, a beak, wings, a hard-shelled egg, and warm blood. A form was distinguished by being shared by all its members, Aristotle believed all kinds and forms to be distinct and unchanging. His approach remained influential until the Renaissance, when observers in the Early Modern period began to develop systems of organization for living things, they placed each kind of animal or plant into a context. Many of these early delineation schemes would now be considered whimsical, animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently, one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa. In the 18th century, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified organisms according to shared physical characteristics and he established the idea of a taxonomic hierarchy of classification based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships. At the time, however, it was widely believed that there was no organic connection between species, no matter how similar they appeared. However, whether or not it was supposed to be fixed, by the 19th century, naturalists understood that species could change form over time, and that the history of the planet provided enough time for major changes. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in his 1809 Zoological Philosophy, described the transmutation of species, proposing that a species could change over time, in 1859, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace provided a compelling account of evolution and the formation of new species. Darwin argued that it was populations that evolved, not individuals and this required a new definition of species. Darwin concluded that species are what appear to be, ideas
13.
Necrobia ruficollis
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Necrobia ruficollis, the ham beetle, red-shouldered ham beetle or red-necked bacon beetle, is a predatory beetle in the family Cleridae with a cosmopolitan distribution. Necrobia ruficollis is 4. 0–6.5 millimetres long, and is mostly a metallic black or dark blue colour and its thorax and legs and the bases of the elytra are reddish brown. It feeds on animals, including dried and smoked meats and animal skins. It is frequently found in cadavers in the stages of decomposition. Pierre André Latreille was imprisoned in 1793 under threat of execution, when the prisons doctor inspected the prisoners, he was surprised to find Latreille scrutinising a beetle on the dungeon floor. Bory de St. -Vincent knew Latreilles work, and managed to obtain the release of Latreille, all the other inmates were dead within one month
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Systematics
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Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees, phylogenies have two components, branching order and branch length. Phylogenetic trees of species and higher taxa are used to study the evolution of traits, Systematics, in other words, is used to understand the evolutionary history of life on Earth. John Lindley provided a definition of systematics in 1830, although he wrote of systematic botany rather than using the term systematics. This is a field with a history that in recent years has experienced a notable renaissance. Part of the material has to do with evolutionary areas. Taxonomy is that part of Systematics concerned with topics to above, however, in modern usage, they can all be considered synonyms of each other. For example, Websters 9th New Collegiate Dictionary of 1987 treats classification, taxonomy, according to this work the terms originated in 1790, c. Europeans tend to use the terms systematics and biosystematics for the field of the study of biodiversity as a whole, all of these biological disciplines can deal both with extinct and with extant organisms. Scientific classifications are aids in recording and reporting information to other scientists, the systematist, a scientist who specializes in systematics, must, therefore, be able to use existing classification systems, or at least know them well enough to skilfully justify not using them. Phenetics was an attempt to determine the relationships of organisms through a measure of overall similarity, from the late-20th century onwards, it was superseded by cladistics, which rejects plesiomorphies in attempting to resolve the phylogeny of Earths various organisms through time. Todays systematists generally make use of molecular biology and of computer programs to study organisms. Taxonomic characters are the attributes that can be used to provide the evidence from which relationships between taxa are inferred. Adaptation, or evolutionary mechanisms Scientific classification and Taxonomy - the result of research in systematics Schuh, Randall T. biological Systematics, Principles and Applications, 2nd edn. ISBN 978-0-8014-4799-0 Simpson, Michael G.2005, ISBN 978-0-12-644460-5 Society of Australian Systematic Biologists Society of Systematic Biologists Willi Hennig Society
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Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
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Georges Cuvier
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Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier, known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the father of paleontology. Cuvier is also known for establishing extinction as a fact—at the time, in his Essay on the Theory of the Earth Cuvier was interpreted to have proposed that new species were created after periodic catastrophic floods. In this way, Cuvier became the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century and his study of the strata of the Paris basin with Alexandre Brongniart established the basic principles of biostratigraphy. Cuvier is also remembered for strongly opposing theories of evolution, which at the time were mainly proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Cuvier believed there was no evidence for evolution, but rather evidence for cyclical creations and destructions of life forms by global extinction events such as deluges. Cuvier supported function and rejected Lamarcks thinking and his most famous work is Le Règne Animal. In 1819, he was created a peer for life in honor of his scientific contributions, thereafter, he was known as Baron Cuvier. He died in Paris during an epidemic of cholera, some of Cuviers most influential followers were Louis Agassiz on the continent and in the United States, and Richard Owen in Britain. His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower, Cuvier was born in Montbéliard, France, where his Protestant ancestors had lived since the time of the Reformation. His father, Jean George Cuvier, was a lieutenant in the Swiss Guards, at the time, the town, which was annexed to France on 10 October 1793, belonged to the Duchy of Württemberg. His mother, who was younger than his father, tutored him diligently throughout his early years. During his gymnasium years, he had trouble acquiring Latin and Greek, and was always at the head of his class in mathematics, history. At the age of 10, soon entering the gymnasium, he encountered a copy of Conrad Gessners Historiae Animalium. He then began frequent visits to the home of a relation, all of these he read and reread, retaining so much of the information, that by the age of 12, he was as familiar with quadrupeds and birds as a first-rate naturalist. He remained at the gymnasium for four years, Cuvier spent an additional four years at the Caroline Academy in Stuttgart, where he excelled in all of his coursework. Although he knew no German on his arrival, after nine months of study. Upon graduation, he had no money on which to live as he awaited appointment to an academic office, so in July 1788, he took a job at Fiquainville chateau in Normandy as tutor to the only son of the Comte dHéricy, a Protestant noble. There, during the early 1790s, he began his comparisons of fossils with extant forms, Cuvier regularly attended meetings held at the nearby town of Valmont for the discussion of agricultural topics. There, he acquainted with Henri Alexandre Tessier, who had assumed a false identity
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History of Limousin
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The history of Limousin, one of the traditional provinces of France, reaches back to Celtic and Roman times. The region surrounds the city of Limoges, Limousin lies in the foothills of the western edge of the Massif Central, with cold weather in the winter. During the 3rd century, Saint Martial evangelized the region, the northernmost part of Limousin belonged to the County of La Marche, while the bishops of Limoges controlled most of present-day Haute-Vienne. Such political fragmentation led to the construction of castles, whose ruins still evoke memories of that historical period. In 1199, King Richard I of England was fatally wounded by a bolt during his siege of Château de Châlus-Chabrol. The region was reconstituted during the Fifth Republic as part of efforts by the French government. LAtlas du Limousin, Ph. Bernard-Allée, M. -F
18.
Legitimacy (family law)
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Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, illegitimacy is the status of a child born outside marriage, depending on the cultural context, legitimacy can affect a childs rights of inheritance to the putative fathers estate and the childs right to bear the fathers surname or title. Illegitimacy has also had consequences for the mothers and childs right to support from the putative father, in medieval Wales, a bastard was defined simply as a child not acknowledged by its father. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, that were acknowledged by the father enjoyed the legal rights. Englands Statute of Merton stated, regarding illegitimacy, He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his parents and this definition also applied to situations when a childs parents could not marry, as when one or both were already married or when the relationship was incestuous. The Poor Law of 1576 formed the basis of English bastardy law and its purpose was to punish a bastard childs mother and putative father, and to relieve the parish from the cost of supporting mother and child. By an act of 1576, it was ordered that bastards should be supported by their putative fathers, if the genitor could be found, then he was put under very great pressure to accept responsibility and to maintain the child. Under English law, a bastard was unable to be an heir to real property, in contrast to the situation under civil law, a younger non-bastard brother would have no claim to the land. The Legitimacy Act 1926 of England and Wales legitimized the birth of a if the parents subsequently married each other. The Legitimacy Act 1959 extended the legitimization even if the parents had married others in the meantime, neither the 1926 nor 1959 Acts changed the laws of succession to the British throne and succession to peerage titles. The Family Law Reform Act 1969 allowed a bastard to inherit on the intestacy of his parents, in canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have also been considered legitimate. Since 2003 in England and Wales,2002 in Northern Ireland and 2006 in Scotland, still, children born out of wedlock may not be eligible for certain federal benefits unless the child has been legitimized in the appropriate jurisdiction. Many other countries have abolished by any legal disabilities of a child born out of wedlock. In France, legal reforms regarding illegitimacy began in the 1970s, the European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock came into force in 1978. Countries which ratify it must ensure that children born outside marriage are provided with legal rights as stipulated in the text of this Convention, the Convention was ratified by the UK in 1981 and by Ireland in 1988. Use of the illegitimate child is now rare, even in legal contexts. It has been stricken from passports and legal documents as needlessly insulting and stigmatizing to the child, terms such as extra-marital child, love child and child born out of wedlock are more commonly used. Also used in Britain and other English-speaking countries is bastard, though such as natural child are preferred in polite society
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Nickname
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A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place, or thing, for affection or ridicule. The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with an emotional bond, compared with a term of endearment. The term diminutive name refers to nicknames that convey smallness, hence something regarded with affection or familiarity, the distinction between the two is often blurred. It is a form of endearment and amusement, as a concept, it is distinct from both pseudonym and stage name, and also from a title, although there may be overlap in these concepts. A moniker also means a nickname or personal name, the word often distinguishes personal names from nicknames that became proper names out of former nicknames. English examples are Bob and Rob, nickname variants for Robert, a nickname is often considered desirable, symbolising a form of acceptance, but can sometimes be a form of ridicule. The compound word ekename, literally meaning additional name, was attested as early as 1303 and this word was derived from the Old English phrase eaca an increase, related to eacian to increase. By the fifteenth century, the misdivision of the syllables of the phrase an ekename led to its reanalysis as a nekename, though the spelling has changed, the pronunciation and meaning of the word have remained relatively stable ever since. However, it is common for the nickname to be identified after a comma following the full real name or later in the body of the text. The middle name is generally eliminated, especially in speech, like English, German uses quotation marks between the first and last names. The latter may cause confusion because it resembles an English convention sometimes used for married, in Viking societies, many people had heiti, viðrnefni, or kenningarnöfn which were used in addition to, or instead of the first name. Slaves have often used nicknames, so that the master who heard about someone doing something could not identify the slave, in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, the slaves had nicknames to protect them from being caught, as practising capoeira was illegal for decades. In Anglo-American culture, a nickname is based on a shortening of a persons proper name. However, in societies, this may not necessarily be the case. For example, my nickname is farmer Phil In Indian society, for example, generally people have at least one nickname, Indian nicknames very often are a trivial word or a diminutive. In Australian society, Australian men will often give ironic nicknames, for example, a man with red hair will be given the nickname Blue or Bluey. A tall man will be called Shorty, an obese person Slim, in England, some nicknames are traditionally associated with a persons surname. A man with the surname Clark will be nicknamed Nobby, the surname Miller will have the nickname Dusty, there are several other nicknames linked traditionally with a persons surname, including Chalky White, Bunny Warren, Tug Wilson, and Spud Baker
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Priest
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A priest or priestess, is a person authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites, in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of and their office or position is the priesthood, a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. The necessity to read sacred texts and keep temple or church records helped foster literacy in early societies. Priests exist in many religions today, such as all or some branches of Judaism, Christianity, the question of which religions have a priest depends on how the titles of leaders are used or translated into English. In some cases, leaders are more like those that other believers will often turn to for advice on spiritual matters, for example, clergy in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are priests, but in Protestant Christianity they are typically minister and pastor. The terms priest and priestess are sufficiently generic that they may be used in a sense to describe the religious mediators of an unknown or otherwise unspecified religion. In many religions, being a priest or priestess is a full-time position, many Christian priests and pastors choose or are mandated to dedicate themselves to their churches and receive their living directly from their churches. In other cases it is a part-time role, for example, in the early history of Iceland the chieftains were titled goði, a word meaning priest. In some religions, being a priest or priestess is by election or human choice. In Judaism the priesthood is inherited in familial lines, in a theocracy, a society is governed by its priesthood. The word priest, is derived from Greek, via Latin presbyter. Old High German also has the disyllabic priester, priestar, apparently derived from Latin independently via Old French presbtre, the Latin presbyter ultimately represents Greek presbyteros, the regular Latin word for priest being sacerdos, corresponding to Greek hiereus. That English should have only the term priest to translate presbyter. The feminine English noun, priestess, was coined in the 17th century, in the 20th century, the word was used in controversies surrounding the ordination of women. In the case of the ordination of women in the Anglican communion, it is common to speak of priests. In historical polytheism, a priest administers the sacrifice to a deity, in the Ancient Near East, the priesthood also acted on behalf of the deities in managing their property. Priestesses in antiquity often performed sacred prostitution, and in Ancient Greece, some such as Pythia, priestess at Delphi. Sumerian and Akkadian Entu or EN were top-ranking priestesses who were distinguished with special ceremonial attire and they owned property, transacted business, and initiated the hieros gamos ceremony with priests and kings
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Limoges
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Limoges is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin in west-central France. Limoges is known for its medieval and Renaissance enamels on copper, for its 19th-century porcelain and for its oak barrels which are used for Cognac, some are even exported to wineries in California. Scarce remains of settlements have been found in the area of Limoges. The city proper was founded as Augustoritum by the Romans, around 10 BC, the foundation was part of the reorganization of the province by the emperor Augustus, hence the new name. The Roman city included an amphitheatre measuring 136 x 115 metres, a theatre, according to tradition, a temple consecrated to Venus, Diana, Minerva and Jupiter was located near the modern cathedral. The city was on the typical Roman square plan, with two main crossing in the centre. It had a Senate and a currency of its own, a sign of its importance in the imperial age, Limoges was evangelized by Saint Martial, who came to the city around 250 with two companions, Alpinianus and Austriclinienus. However, in the late 3rd century it was increasingly abandoned, the population was concentrated instead in a more easily fortifiable site, the modern Puy Saint-Étienne, which is the centre of the modern Limoges. Starting from the 11th century, thanks to the presence of the Abbey of St. Martial and its large library, Limoges became a flourishing artistic centre. It was home to an important school of music composition. In the 13th century, at the peak of its splendour, the town proper, with a new line of walls encompassing the Vienne River, inhabited mainly by clerks and workers. It has a bridge on the Vienne river named after Saint-Étienne, built by the bishops, sacked in 1370, it never recovered entirely. The castle, with 12 meter-high walls, including the abbey and controlled by the abbot, traces of the walls can still be seen in the city centre. Outside the lines of walls were the popular quarters, in 1370, Limoges was occupied by Edward, the Black Prince, who massacred some 300 residents, perhaps a sixth of the normal population, with another 60 members of the garrison of 140 dead as well. The city and castle were united in 1792 to form the city of Limoges. During the French Revolution several religious edifices, considered symbols of the Ancien Régime, were destroyed by the population, some years later the porcelain industry started to develop, favoured by the presence of kaolinite which was discovered near Limoges in 1768. Factories in Limoges and St Junien still produce luxury leather shoes, gloves, in the 19th century Limoges saw strong construction activity, which included the destruction and rebuilding of much of the city centre. The unsafe conditions of the population is highlighted by the outbreak of several riots, including that of July–November 1830
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Deacon
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Deacon is a ministry in Christian Churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. In many traditions the diaconate, the term for an office, is a clerical office. The word deacon is derived from the Greek word diákonos, which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning servant, waiting-man, minister, or messenger. One commonly promulgated speculation as to its etymology is that it literally means through the dust, female deacons are mentioned by Pliny the Younger in a letter to the emperor Trajan dated c. The title deaconess is not found in the Bible, however, a woman, Phoebe, is mentioned at Romans 16, 1–2 as a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. Nothing more specific is said about her duties or authority, the exact relationship between male and female deacons varies. A biblical description of the qualities required of a deacon, and of his household, can be found in 1 Timothy 3, prominent historical figures who played major roles as deacons and went on to higher office include Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Thomas Becket and Reginald Pole. On June 8, A. D.536 a serving Roman deacon was raised to Pope and his father, Pope Agapetus, had died and the office had been vacant for over a month. The title is used for the president, chairperson, or head of a trades guild in Scotland. The diaconate is one of the orders in the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox. The other major orders are those of bishop and presbyter, the diaconate continued in a vestigial form as a temporary, final step along the course toward ordination to priesthood. In Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches, deacons assist priests in their pastoral and administrative duties and they have a distinctive role in the liturgy of the Eastern and Western Churches. In the Eastern Church, deacons have a profound presence in the Divine Liturgy. In the Western Church, Pope St. Today, deacons are also granted permission to preach, beginning around the fifth century, there was a gradual decline in the permanent diaconate in the Latin church. It has however remained a part of the Eastern Catholic Churches. These men are known as permanent deacons in contrast to those continuing their formation, there is no sacramental or canonical difference between the two, however, as there is only one order of deacons. The permanent diaconate formation period in the Roman Catholic Church varies from diocese to diocese as it is determined by the local ordinary, although they are assigned to work in a parish by the diocesan bishop, once assigned, deacons are under the supervision of the parish pastor. Unlike most clerics, permanent deacons who also have a profession have no right to receive a salary for their ministry
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Natural history
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Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and superstition as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was also a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do. Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene
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Jardin des plantes
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The Jardin des Plantes is the main botanical garden in France. It is one of seven departments of the Muséum national dhistoire naturelle and it is situated in the 5ème arrondissement, Paris, on the left bank of the river Seine and covers 28 hectares. The grounds of the Jardin des Plantes includes four galleries of the Muséum, the Grande Galerie de lÉvolution, the Mineralogy Museum, the Paleontology Museum and the Entomology Museum. In addition to the gardens there is also a zoo, Ménagerie du Jardin des plantes. The Jardin des Plantes maintains a school, which trains botanists, constructs demonstration gardens. About 4500 plants are arranged by family on a one hectare plot, three hectares are devoted to horticultural displays of decorative plants. An Alpine garden has 3000 species with world-wide representation, specialized buildings, such as a large Art Deco winter garden, and Mexican and Australian hothouses display regional plants, not native to France. The Rose Garden, created in 1990, has hundreds of species of roses, founded in 1626, the garden was not planted by Guy de La Brosse, Louis XIIIs physician, until 1635 as a medicinal herb garden. It was originally known as the Jardin du Roi, in 1640 it opened to the public. After a period of decline, Jean-Baptiste Colbert took administrative control of the gardens and it includes the 6,963 specimens of the herbarium collection of Joseph Tournefort, donated on his death to the Jardin du Roi. The Comte de Buffon became the curator in 1739 and he expanded the gardens greatly, adding a maze, the Labyrinth, in 1792 the Royal Menagerie was moved to the gardens from Versailles. List of botanical gardens in France Official site Paris Botanical Garden
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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. It has been said that Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the half of the 18th century. Buffon held the position of intendant at the Jardin du Roi, Georges was named after his mother’s uncle Georges Blaisot, the tax-farmer of the Duke of Savoy for all of Sicily. In 1714 Blaisot died childless, leaving a fortune to his seven-year-old godson. Benjamin Leclerc then purchased an estate containing the village of Buffon. Georges attended the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon from the age of ten onwards, from 1723–1726 he then studied law in Dijon, the prerequisite for continuing the family tradition in civil service. In 1728 Georges left Dijon to study mathematics and medicine at the University of Angers in France, in 1732 after the death of his mother and before the impending remarriage of his father, Georges left Kingston and returned to Dijon to secure his inheritance. Having added de Buffon to his name while traveling with the Duke, he repurchased the village of Buffon, with a fortune of about 80000 livres Buffon set himself up in Paris to pursue science, at first primarily mathematics and mechanics, and the increase of his fortune. In 1732 he moved to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire, in 1734 he was admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. During this period he corresponded with the Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer and his protector Maurepas had asked the Academy of Sciences to do research on wood for the construction of ships in 1733. Soon afterward, Buffon began a study, performing some of the most comprehensive tests to date on the mechanical properties of wood. Included were a series of tests to compare the properties of small specimens with those of large members, in 1739 he was appointed head of the Parisian Jardin du Roi with the help of Maurepas, he held this position to the end of his life. Buffon was instrumental in transforming the Jardin du Roi into a research center. He also enlarged it, arranging the purchase of adjoining plots of land, thanks to his talent as a writer, he was invited to join Pariss second great academy, the Académie française in 1753. In his Discours sur le style, pronounced before the Académie française, he said, Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul, the style is the man himself. Unfortunately for him, Buffons reputation as a literary stylist also gave ammunition to his detractors, The mathematician Jean le Rond DAlembert, for example, called him the great phrase-monger. In 1752 Buffon married Marie-Françoise de Saint-Belin-Malain, the daughter of an noble family from Burgundy
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Insect collecting
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Insect collecting refers to the collection of insects and other arthropods for scientific study or as a hobby. Because most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, entomologists often make, very large collections are conserved in natural history museums or universities where they are maintained and studied by specialists. Many college courses require students to form small collections, there are also amateur entomologists and collectors who keep collections. Historically insect collecting has been widespread and was in the Victorian age a very popular educational hobby, Insect collecting has left traces in European cultural history, literature and songs. The practice is widespread in many countries, and is particularly common among Japanese youths. Different designs of ultraviolet light traps such as the Robinson trap are also used by entomologists for collecting nocturnal insects during faunistic survey studies, aspirators or pooters suck up insects too small or delicate to handle with fingers. Several different types of nets are used to actively collect insects. Aerial insect nets are used to flying insects. The bag of a net is generally constructed from a lightweight mesh to minimize damage to delicate butterfly wings. A sweep net is used to collect insects from grass and brush, sweeping continues for some distance and then the net is flipped over, with the bag hanging over the rim, trapping the insects until they can be removed with a pooter. Other types of nets used for collecting insects include beating nets, leaf litter sieves are used by coleopterists and to collect larvae. Once collected, a jar is used to kill required insects before they damage themselves trying to escape. However, killing jars are generally used on hard-bodied insects. Soft-bodied insects, such as those in the stage, are generally fixed in a vial containing an ethanol. Another now mostly historical approach is Caterpillar inflation where the innards were removed, very small insects may be pinned on minuten stuck into a block of foam plastic on a standard insect pin. Alternatively they may be glued onto a piece of card on the pin. There are specific procedures for proper mounting that are used to show off the insects essential characteristics, Techniques and equipment may be varied to deal with various species or requirements. For example, one or both of the wings of a beetle or grasshopper can be pulled open and fanned out to show the structure that otherwise would be hidden
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Botany
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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field, the term botany comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning pasture, grass, or fodder, βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, to feed or to graze. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants. Medieval physic gardens, often attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance and they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards. One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden and these gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, in the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science, dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botany originated as herbalism, the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties, many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago. This early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, the early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings. His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to science until the Middle Ages. De Materia Medica was widely read for more than 1,500 years, important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyyas Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarīs the Book of Plants, and Ibn Bassals The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, and Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner and these gardens continued the practical value of earlier physic gardens, often associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject, lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much later to northern Europe, the first in England was the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, throughout this period, botany remained firmly subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of the three German fathers of botany, along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock, Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification, physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium in 1546. Naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard published herbals covering the medicinal uses of plants, naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi was considered the father of natural history, which included the study of plants
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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
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Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist. He was a soldier, biologist, academic, and a proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. He gave the term biology a broader meaning by coining the term for special sciences, chemistry, meteorology, geology, Lamarck fought in the Pomeranian War with Prussia, and was awarded a commission for bravery on the battlefield. At his post in Monaco, Lamarck became interested in natural history and he retired from the army after being injured in 1766, and returned to his medical studies. Lamarck developed a particular interest in botany, and later, after he published the three-volume work Flore françoise, Lamarck became involved in the Jardin des Plantes and was appointed to the Chair of Botany in 1788. When the Muséum national dHistoire naturelle was founded in 1793, Lamarck was appointed as a professor of zoology, in 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres, a major work on the classification of invertebrates, a term he coined. In an 1802 publication, he one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense. Lamarck continued his work as an authority on invertebrate zoology. He is remembered, at least in malacology, as a taxonomist of considerable stature, however, his idea of soft inheritance was, perhaps, a reflection of the wisdom of the time accepted by many natural historians. Scientists have debated whether advances in the field of transgenerational epigenetics mean that Lamarck was to an extent correct, jean-Baptiste Lamarck was born in Bazentin, Picardy, northern France, as the eleventh child in an impoverished aristocratic family. Male members of the Lamarck family had served in the French army. Lamarcks eldest brother was killed in combat at the Siege of Bergen op Zoom, yielding to the wishes of his father, Lamarck enrolled in a Jesuit college in Amiens in the late 1750s. After his father died in 1760, Lamarck bought himself a horse, and rode across the country to join the French army, Lamarck showed great physical courage on the battlefield in the Pomeranian War with Prussia, and he was even nominated for the lieutenancy. Lamarcks company was exposed to the direct artillery fire of their enemies. When their colonel reached the remains of their company, this display of courage, however, when one of his comrades playfully lifted him by the head, he sustained an inflammation in the lymphatic glands of the neck, and he was sent to Paris to receive treatment. He underwent an operation, and continued his treatment for a year. He was awarded a commission and settled at his post in Monaco and it was there that he encountered Traité des plantes usuelles, a botany book by James Francis Chomel. With a reduced pension of only 400 francs a year, Lamarck resolved to pursue a profession and he attempted to study medicine, and supported himself by working in a bank office
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Civil Constitution of the Clergy
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The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that caused the immediate subordination of the Catholic Church in France to the French government. Earlier legislation had already arranged the confiscation of the Catholic Churchs French land holdings and this new law completed the destruction of the monastic orders, outlawing all regular and secular chapters for either sex, abbacies and priorships, both regular and in commendam, for either sex, etc. It also sought to settle the chaos caused by the confiscation of Church lands. Additionally, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy regulated the current dioceses so that they could become more uniform and it emphasised that officials of the church could not provide commitment to anything outside of France, specifically the Pope which was outside of France. Lastly, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy made Bishops and Priest elected, the measure was opposed, but ultimately acquiesced to, by King Louis XVI. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy document had 4 tittles with different articles, the document began with an introduction that introduced why the document was written. Title I focused on the dioceses and how they were to be administered, Title II focused on the administration of the dioceses and how elections were to take place. Title III focused on payment because the Clergy was an employee of the State. Title IV focused on the requirements for bishops, parish priests. Even before the Revolution and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, even prior to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, On 11 August 1789 tithes were abolished. On 2 November 1789, Catholic Church property that was held for purposes of church revenue was nationalized, on 13 February 1790, monastic vows were forbidden and all ecclesiastical orders and congregations were dissolved, excepting those devoted to teaching children and nursing the sick. On 19 April 1790, administration of all remaining property was transferred to the State. The Church owned about six percent of the land in France, in addition the Church collected tithes. Owing, in part, to abuses of this system, there was resentment of the Church, taking the various forms of atheism, anticlericalism. Many of the revolutionaries viewed the Catholic Church as a retrograde force, at the same time, there was enough support for a basically Catholic form of Christianity that some means had to be found to fund the Church in France. On 6 February 1790, one week before banning monastic vows, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy came before the Assembly on 29 May 1790. François de Bonal, Bishop of Clermont, and some members of the Right requested that the project should be submitted to a council or to the Pope. Joining them in their opposition to the legislation was Abbé Sieyès, one of the political theorists of the French Revolution
30.
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent
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Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist. Joining the army on his return, he was present at the battle of Ulm and battle of Austerlitz, 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 an expedition to the Peloponnese. He was editor of the Dictionnaire classique dhistoire naturelle. and Resume de la de la Peninsule. 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 Lamarcks philosophy with Geoffroys higher anatomy. From 1822, Bory edited the Dictionnaire classique dhistoire naturelle and this volume contained information about Lamarck and the species debate and is notable for having traveled with Charles Darwin on the Beagle. European and American voyages of scientific exploration Mamelon Baynes, T. S. ed, jean Baptiste George Marie Bory de Saint-Vincent. Jean Baptiste George Marie Bory de Saint-Vincent
31.
Johan Christian Fabricius
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Johan Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in Insecta, which at that time included all arthropods, insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. Johan Christian Fabricius was born on 7 January 1745 at Tønder in the Duchy of Schleswig and he studied at the gymnasium at Altona and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1762. Later the same year he travelled together with his friend and relative Johan Zoëga to Uppsala, on his return, he started work on his Systema entomologiæ, which was finally published in 1775. Throughout this time, he remained dependent on subsidies from his father, during his time in Kiel, Fabricius repeatedly travelled to London in the summer to study the collections of British collectors, such as Joseph Banks and Dru Drury. On hearing of the British attack on Copenhagen in 1807, Fabricius returned to Kiel and he died on the 3rd of March 1808, at the age of 63. His daughter died in an accident in Paris, but he was survived by two sons, who studied medicine. Fabricius is considered one of the greatest entomologists of the 18th century and he was a greater observer of insects than his more botanically-minded mentor, Carl Linnaeus. Fabricius named 9,776 species of insects, compared to Linnaeus tally of around 3,000 and he identified many species of Tenebrionidae from the Egyptian Sinai on the basis of other entomologists collections. Fabricius added two distinct areas to the classification system and he considers both artificial and natural characteristics. Artificial characteristics allow for the determination of a species, and natural ones allow for the relationship to other genera, the evolutionary ideas of Fabricius are not as well known. He believed that new species could be formed by the hybridization of existing species and he also has been called the Father of Lamarckism because of his belief that new species can form from morphological adaptation. This agrees with Lamarcks theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, in contrast to Linnaeus classification of the insects, which was based primarily on the number of wings, and their form, Fabricius used the form of the mouthparts to discriminate the orders. He stated those whose nourishment and biology are the same, must then belong to the same genus, Fabricius system remains the basis of insect classification today, although the names he proposed are not. Fabricius also foresaw that the male genitalia would provide useful characters for systematics, Fabricius was the first to divide the Staphylinidae, which Linnaeus had considered a single genus that he called Staphylinus, establishing in 1775 the genus Paederus. He also described 77 species of Staphylinidae and his major works on systematic entomology were, Systema entomologiæ Genera insectorum Species insectorum. Fabricius also wrote a few works on economics, although these are less important than his zoological works. They include Begyndelsesgrundene i de økonomiske Videnskaber, Polizeischriften and Von der Volksvermehrung, prominent Danish Scientists through the Ages. University Library of Copenhagen 450th Anniversary, levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen. Complete and many supported by images
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Guillaume-Antoine Olivier
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Guillaume-Antoine Olivier was a French entomologist. Olivier studied medicine in Montpellier, where he became friends with Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet. With Jean Guillaume Bruguière and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, he collaborated in the creation of Journal dHistoire Naturelle, afterwards, he served as a naturalist on a 6-year scientific journey that took him to Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt, Cyprus and Corfu. He returned to France in 1798 with a collection of natural history specimens from his travels. Later, he was associated with the École nationale vétérinaire dAlfort, Olivier was a close friend of Johan Christian Fabricius and a patron of Pierre André Latreille. Although primarily an entomologist, Olivieri also worked in the field of herpetology. Olivier was the author of Coléoptères Paris Baudouin 1789 -1808, Entomologie, ou histoire naturelle des Insectes and Le Voyage dans lEmpire Othoman and he was a contributor to Encyclopédie Méthodique. Today, most of his collection is housed at the Museum National dHistoire Naturelle in Paris, a species of lizard, Mesalina olivieri, is named in his honor. Voyage dans lempire Othoman, lÉgypte et la Perse, fait par ordre du gouvernement, pendant les six premières années de la république, Olivier, Vol I - Vol II - - - Vol V - Vol VI Works by or about Guillaume-Antoine Olivier at Internet Archive
33.
French Academy of Sciences
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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. It was at the forefront of developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Currently headed by Sébastien Candel, it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France, the Academy of Sciences makes its origin to Colberts plan to create a general academy. He chose a group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the Kings library. The first 30 years of the Academys existence were relatively informal, in contrast to its British counterpart, the Academy was founded as an organ of government. The Academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious, on 20 January 1699, Louis XIV gave the Company its first rules. The Academy received the name of Royal Academy of Sciences and was installed in the Louvre in Paris, following this reform, the Academy began publishing a volume each year with information on all the work done by its members and obituaries for members who had died. This reform also codified the method by which members of the Academy could receive pensions for their work, on 8 August 1793, the National Convention abolished all the academies. Almost all the old members of the previously abolished Académie were formally re-elected, among the exceptions was Dominique, comte de Cassini, who refused to take his seat. In 1816, the again renamed Royal Academy of Sciences became autonomous, while forming part of the Institute of France, in the Second Republic, the name returned to Académie des sciences. During this period, the Academy was funded by and accountable to the Ministry of Public Instruction, the Academy came to control French patent laws in the course of the eighteenth century, acting as the liaison of artisans knowledge to the public domain. As a result, academicians dominated technological activities in France, the Academy proceedings were published under the name Comptes rendus de lAcadémie des sciences. The Comptes rendus is now a series with seven titles. The publications can be found on site of the French National Library, in 1818 the French Academy of Sciences launched a competition to explain the properties of light. The civil engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel entered this competition by submitting a new theory of light. Siméon Denis Poisson, one of the members of the judging committee, being a supporter of the particle-theory of light, he looked for a way to disprove it. The Poisson spot is not easily observed in every-day situations, so it was natural for Poisson to interpret it as an absurd result. However, the head of the committee, Dominique-François-Jean Arago, and he molded a 2-mm metallic disk to a glass plate with wax
34.
Legion of Honour
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The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction, Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier and Grand-Croix. The orders motto is Honneur et Patrie and its seat is the Palais de la Légion dHonneur next to the Musée dOrsay, in the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, the badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon. Napoleon originally created this to ensure political loyalty, the organization would be used as a facade to give political favours, gifts, and concessions. The Légion was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, officers, commanders, regional cohorts, the highest rank was not a grand cross but a Grand Aigle, a rank that wore all the insignia common to grand crosses. The members were paid, the highest of them extremely generously,5,000 francs to an officier,2,000 francs to a commandeur,1,000 francs to an officier,250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led, do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning. That is good only for the scholar in his study, the soldier needs glory, distinctions, rewards. This has been quoted as It is with such baubles that men are led. The order was the first modern order of merit, under the monarchy, such orders were often limited to Roman Catholics, and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers, the Légion, however, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted. The new legionnaire had to be sworn in the Légion and it is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution. The jewel of the Légion has five arms, in a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted. This decoration, a cross on a sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand Aigle. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the legion among his family and this collar was abolished in 1815. The Légion dhonneur was prominent and visible in the French Empire, the Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time
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Jean Victoire Audouin
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Jean Victor Audouin, sometimes Victor Audouin, was a French naturalist, an entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and malacologist. Audouin was born in Paris and was educated in the field of medicine, in 1824 he was appointed assistant to Pierre André Latreille, professor of entomology at the Muséum National dHistoire Naturelle, where in 1833 he became Latreilles successor. In 1838 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences and his principal work, Histoire des insectes nuisibles à la vigne, was completed after his death by Henri Milne-Edwards and Émile Blanchard. In 1833, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Audouin also contributed to other branches of natural history and he also completed Marie Jules César Savignys ornithological section of Description de lEgypte. Audouin also studied amphibians and reptiles, and from 1827 to 1829 he described four new species of lizards, in 1843, mycologist David Gruby named the fungal species Microsporum audouinii after him. Audouins gull is a species named in his honor, as is the red alga Audouinella, and in the French language. Paris, Fortin, Masson,1842 Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Audouin. Les débuts de la marine en France, Jean-Victor Audouin et Henri-Milne Edwards. Premier Congrès International d’Histoire de l’Océanographie, Monaco, bulletin de l’Institut Océanographique, Numéro Special 2, 417-437 Theodorides, Jean. Un zoologiste de l’époque romantique, Jean-Victor Audouin, secrétariat d’État aux Universités, Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, Mémoires de la Section des Sciences 6,128 pp Digital Catalogue of Audouins library at Gallica
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pierre-André Latreille". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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