Charles Frédéric Girard
Charles Frédéric Girard (born March 8, 1822 in Mulhouse in Alsace , † January 29, 1895 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French-American doctor and zoologist .
He studied biology in Neuchâtel , Switzerland . His professor was Louis Agassiz , who took him to the United States as an assistant at Harvard University in 1847 . Three years later, Spencer Fullerton Baird hired him at the Smithsonian to work on the institute's growing collection of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. He worked there for ten years and brought out several publications, many of which were created in collaboration with Baird. In 1854 he was sworn in as a US citizen.
In addition to his work at the Smithsonian, he managed to study medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, DC , where he received his doctorate in 1856. In 1859 he returned to France for the first time to receive the Cuvier Prize from the Institut de France for his work on North American fish and reptiles. When the Civil War broke out, Girard joined the Confederate forces and worked as a surgeon.
After the war he settled back in France, where he worked as a doctor and practiced as a military doctor during the Franco-German War and published an important paper on typhus . Girard was still active as a doctor until around 1880 and then published some natural history works.
He retired in 1891 and died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1895 at the age of 73.
He first described 55 species of reptiles.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Girard, Charles Frédéric |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French-American doctor and zoologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 8, 1822 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mulhouse |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 29, 1895 |
| Place of death | Neuilly-sur-Seine |