Charles Léopold Laurillard

Entry of Charles Léopold Laurillard's death in the 12th arrondissement, Paris

Charles Léopold Laurillard (born January 21, 1783 in Montbéliard , † January 27, 1853 in the 12th arrondissement in Paris ) was a French zoologist and paleontologist . He is best known for his work with Georges Cuvier , as his private secretary and draftsman he also described various species and species of animals. He was also his companion on trips through Europe and Africa for over 30 years.

Life

Charles Léopold Laurillard was born on January 21, 1783 in the eastern French city of Montbéliard, not far from the border with Switzerland , as the son of the stocking maker and schoolmaster Charles Jérémie Laurillard and his wife Charlotte Vurpillot. When he was 13 years old, his father died and, although he was still very young and coming from a modest household, he continued his father's teachings and taught the children of the rich families of Montbéliard even at a young age. His skill in drawing and learning architecture was particularly noteworthy.

In 1803, now at the age of 20, he came to the capital Paris, where he initially worked with the academic painter Jean-Baptiste Regnault , before meeting Frédéric Cuvier , brother of Georges Cuvier and himself a zoologist and paleontologist, the following year . He introduced him to his brother, who subsequently hired him as a personal secretary and worked with him primarily as a draftsman. They met for the first time in Strasbourg .

It is said that Georges Cuvier initially showed skepticism about Laurillard's abilities and initially put him to the test when he presented him with the bones of an unknown animal, but Laurillard described it so perfectly that Cuvier immediately got him the job as his assistant and Secretary offered. In the next 30 years he accompanied Georges Cuvier, who is sometimes considered to be the scientific founder of paleontology, on all his travels through Europe and Africa, and during this time he himself described various animal species and species.

When Cuvier, who like Laurillard also came from Montbéliard, died in Paris in 1831, Laurillard, who had never married himself, continued his work at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. From this time on, in particular, he described many different animal species, including the Mendes antelope (1841) and the Oribis (1842) or the extinct genus Eurohippus (1849) and the Aceratherium species Aceratherium simorrense (together with Édouard Armand Lartet , 1848).

In the last few years before his death, he initially worked in the entourage of the late Cuvier's widow, later also under the leadership of Sophie Duvaucel , his daughter, who was born in 1789 and who was friends with the French writer, military and politician Stendhal , among others . During his active time, he also wrote numerous papers on comparative anatomy , which Georges Cuvier had made a research discipline. In 1853, the always modest but recognized by his colleagues for his scientific competence, Laurillard died at the age of 70 in Paris.

Pierre Abraham Lorillard , the founder of the Lorillard Tobacco Company , which existed from 1760 to 2015 , was a cousin of Charles Léopold Laurillard's father. After emigrating to what is now the United States during the Seven Years' War in 1755 , he founded a tobacco factory there in 1760 at the age of 18. In 1962, around the company's 200th anniversary, their descendants financed the renovation of a room in the Château de Montbéliard .

The Société d'Émulation de Montbéliard published a 378-page book written by Claude Cardot entitled Charles Léopold Laurillard 1783-1853: De l'ombre à la lumière dans le sillage de Cuvier in 2012 .

Web links

• Charles Léopold Laurillard on cancoillotte.net (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gosbee Genealogy - book on Google - from page 64 (English), accessed on March 8, 2016