Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau

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Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau

Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau (born July 20, 1700 in Pithiviers , † August 22, 1782 ibid) was a French lawyer , botanist , chemist and engineer . He is considered to be the founder of forest botany , especially forest use and biological wood research. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Duhamel ".

Life

According to his father's wishes, the son from a noble family completed a law degree from 1718 to 1721, although his passion was botany. He was the owner of a large country estate, which he expanded into a model business on which new methods of horticulture and agriculture and forestry were developed and tested. Duhamel published the results of this work in numerous publications. In 1728 he was commissioned by the Academy of Sciences to research the causes of the damage that occurred in a saffron farm in Gâtinais . As a harmful organism, he discovered a parasitic fungus (later described as Rhizoctonia crocorum ) that attacks the roots of saffron plants. For his achievement he was accepted as a member of the academy in 1728.

In the following years he mainly dealt with physiological issues relating to crops. Among other things, he discovered, influenced by the physician Hans Sloane , methods of coloring bones with madder dyes, with which he could show the layering of the bone structure and from this he came to the conclusion that bones grow in a similar way to woody plants.

Together with Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon he undertook numerous studies on the growth in thickness of trees. He worked on numerous other objects, observed the growth of mistletoe and researched smut fungi , including the corn smut, and thus also pioneered modern agriculture. His most important achievements relate, among other things, to the processes involved in grafting and grafting, as well as the movement of the sap in the plant and the effects of air and light on the development and nutrition of the plants.

In 1735 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society and in 1740 a member of the Academie des Sciences .

From 1740 he dealt with meteorological problems, in particular their influence on agricultural production.

As inspector général of the French Navy (from 1732) he also dealt scientifically with shipbuilding, with the knowledge and conservation of wood and even with the sanitary conditions of seafarers.

In 1760 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg .

As a chemist, he proved that potash and soda (as a mineral occurring in Egypt) are different substances by making soda pure (he suggested making sodium acetate from sodium sulfide with acetic acid and calcining it into artificial soda ). In 1736 he showed that rock salt , borax , Glauber's salt and table salt were derived from it and he showed that there are various alkaline components in commonly used salts such as soda and potash ( Sur la bas de sel marin 1737). This enabled him to differentiate between soda and potash. In 1735 he proposed a process for the industrial production of salmiak . He analyzed the purple dye and produced pure ether by distilling alcohol and sulfuric acid. He also dealt with various questions of chemical technology such as the production of starch, glue, soaps, the refining of cane sugar and the manufacture of brass.

His work has come down to us in almost ninety writings on all areas in which he has worked.

Dedication names

After him the plant genera Duhamelia Pers. and Hamelia Jacq. from the family of the redness plants named (Rubiaceae).

Fonts (selection)

  • Traité de la fabrique des manœuvres pour les vaisseaux, ou l'Art de la corderie perfectionné , 1747
  • Traité de la culture des terres , 1751, suivi d ' Expériences sur cette culture , 1751-1760
  • Traité de la Conservation des grains et en particulier du froment , 1753
  • Des Arbres et arbustes qui se cultivent en France , 1755
  • Mémoires sur la garance et sa culture, avec la description des étuves pour la dessécher et des moulins pour la pulvériser , 1757
  • Élémens de l'architecture navale , 1758
  • Ecole d'agriculture , 1759
  • Moyens de conserver la santé aux équipages des vaisseaux, avec la manière de purifier l'air des salles des hôpitaux, et une courte description de l'hôpital Saint-Louis, à Paris , 1759
  • Des Semis et plantations des arbres et de leur culture .. , 1760
  • Éléments d'agriculture , 1762
  • De l'Exploitation des bois , 1764
  • Traité des arbres fruitiers , 1768
  • Des Pêches maritimes et fluviatiles , 1769.

More of his works have been reprinted and expanded by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau (1766–1854), Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775–1840), Jean-Élie Bertrand (1713–1797) and Étienne Michel ; Carl Christoph Oelhafen von Schöllenbach translated and published several of his writings and in 1756 Georg Christian Oeder translated proposals according to which the transport of trees, plants, seeds, and various other natural objects across the sea by Duhamel du Monceau and Rolland-Michel Barrin, Marquis de La Galissonière.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The small encyclopedia , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, volume 2, page 189
  2. ↑ Ministère de la culture et de la communication (French Ministry of Culture and Communication): Célébrations nationales 2000 . (French)
  3. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 29, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Winfried R. Pötsch (lead), Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, p. 126
  5. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
personal data
SURNAME Duhamel du Monceau, Henri Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French botanist and engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1700
PLACE OF BIRTH Pithiviers
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1782
Place of death Paris