Achille Valenciennes

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Achille Valenciennes

Achille Valenciennes (born August 9, 1794 in Paris , † April 13, 1865 ibid) was a French zoologist , ichthyologist and malacologist .

Life

Achille Valenciennes

He was born in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, where his father worked as a research assistant and lived with his family. In the school collège he excelled in mathematics and it was planned to give him to the Polytechnikum l'École polytechnique . However, the early death of his father forced him to give up his studies and work to support his mother and four sisters. Before he was eighteen he became a preparator in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, his main task being to stuff mammals and birds. But because of his above-average qualities, he was quickly entrusted with other tasks. He first worked for Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) and then in 1814 for Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) where he helped him as an assistant to arrange and classify the collection of invertebrates, zoophytes and molluscs. This work attracted the attention of Georges Cuvier (1769–1832). So that he also worked for Cuvier in a row.

In 1827 Valenciennes extended his own research to fish. He traveled to England, Holland, Germany to learn about fish that exist in museums or private collections. A few years later he was appointed professor of malacology at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. His work in the field of ichthyology continued, for example as a co-author of L'histoire naturelle des Poissons , a fundamental publication (in the period from 1828 to 1850) in which 4055 species of fish (2311 of them new) were described.

Nevertheless, Valenciennes published a number of works on malacology, including the descriptions of the molluscs that were collected worldwide during the expedition of the frigate Venus La Vénus (1836–1839) under the command of Capitaine Abel Aubert Du Petit-Thouars (1793–1864) .

In 1832 he took over the chair for annelids , molluscs and zoophytes in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris from Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (1777-1850). For his part, two years after Cuvier's death, in 1834, he was given the chair of comparative anatomy and filled it for 18 years.

His scientific investigations on worms that parasitize in humans have made an important contribution to parasitology . His other work includes systematic studies of fossil and modern species.

Together with Cuvier, he worked from 1828 to 1848 on the 22-volume Histoire naturelle des poissons (Natural History of Fish), which he completed after Cuvier's death in 1832. He had a lifelong friendship with Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), and a total of 70 letters from both of them have been published. At the beginning of his career, he had the task of describing and classifying the animals that Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (1773–1858) brought or sent from their travels in tropical America from 1799 to 1803.

From 1844 Valenciennes was a member of the Académie des sciences . In 1836 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

Taxa named after Valenciennes

  • Acropora valenciennesi , Milne Edwards & Haime, (1860)
  • Ophiacantha valenciennesi , Lyman (1879)
  • Glossodoris valenciennesi , Cantraine (1835)
  • Hypselodoris valenciennesi , Cantraine (1841)
  • Lithuaria valenciennesi , d'Hondt (1984)
  • Montastrea valenciennesi , Milne Edwards & Haime (1848)
  • Symphyllia valenciennesi , Milne Edwards & Haime (1849)
  • Oculina valenciennesi , Milne Edwards & Haime (1850)
  • Callionymus valenciennei , Temminck & Schlegel (1845)

Works

  • G. Cuvier, A. Valenciennes: Histoire naturelle des Poissons. Pitois-Levrault-Tome XIV, Paris 1839.
  • A. Valenciennes: Aspidophoroids. Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle. C. d'Orbigny (dir.), 1841, vol. 2, pp. 237-238.
  • A. Valenciennes: Description d'une nouvelle espèce d'Aspidophore pêché dans l'une des anses du port de l'empereur Nicolas. CR Acad. Sci Paris 1858, v. 47, pp. 1040-1043.

literature

  • T. Monod, P. Noirot, Jean Théodoridès: Achille Valenciennes (biography), éd. Du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris. 1967.
  • T. Monod: Achille Valenciennes et l'histoire naturelle des poissons. Mélanges ichthyologiques, Mémoire IFAN, n ° 88, 1963-64, Dakat Publications.
  • J. Théodoridès: Une amitié de savants au siècle dernier: Alexander von Humboldt and Achille Valenciennes. Biologie médicale, Hors-série, février 1965.
  • AA Du Petit-Thouars: Voyage autour du Monde sur la frégate La Vénus. onze volumes, 1840-1864.
  • Marie-Louise Bauchot, Jacques Daget, Roland Bauchot: Ichthyology in France at the Beginning of the 19th Century. The "Histoire Naturelle des Poissons" of Cuvier (1769-1832) and Valenciennes (1794-1865). In: TW Pietsch, WD Anderson: Collection building in ichthyology and herpetology. American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Lawrence, Kan. 1997, ISBN 0-935868-91-7 , pp. 27-80.
  • Abel Du Petit-Thouars: Reports sur les travaux scientifiques exécutés pendant le voyage de la frégate La Vénus. A. Pihan de la Forest, Imp. De la cour de Cassation. Rue des Noyuers 37th Nd., Paris 1840.
  • Jean-Jacques Amigo, “Valenciennes (Achille)”, in Nouveau Dictionnaire de biographies roussillonnaises, vol. 3 Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, Perpignan, Publications de l'olivier, 2017, 915 p. ( ISBN 9782908866506 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monod T., Noirot P., Théodoridès, J .: Achille Valenciennes (biography) éd. Du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris (1967) 109 p
  2. ^ Jean-Jacques Amigo, “Valenciennes (Achille)”, in Nouveau Dictionnaire de biographies roussillonnaises, vol. 3 Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre, Perpignan, Publications de l'olivier, 2017, 915 p. ( ISBN 9782908866506 )
  3. ↑ http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Valenciennes/148079
  4. ^ Du Petit-Thouars, Abel: Rapports sur les travaux scientifiques exécutés pendant le voyage de la frégate La Vénus Paris :. A. Pihan de la Forest, Imp. De la cour de Cassation. Rue des Noyuers 37th Nd. (1840)
  5. ↑ http://www.esapubs.org/bulletin/current/history_list/history_part32.pdf
  6. ↑ Biographical Etymology of Marine Organisms and Their Names ( English ) tmbl.gu.se. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Valenciennes, Achille
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French zoologist, ichthyologist and malacologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1794
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1865
Place of death Paris