Laboratoire maritime de Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue

The Laboratoire maritime de Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue was a research station in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (Cotentin). It was founded by the French zoologist and anatomist Edmond Perrier (1844–1921) in 1885 to study marine organisms.

history

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue has long attracted the attention of naturalists. Scientists from all over France (such as Henri Milne-Edwards and Victor Audouin ) and from abroad have been coming there since 1831, attracted by the marine fauna and flora .

Initially, the research equipment and laboratories were housed in a hotel in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.

In the bay of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, off the east coast of the Cotentin peninsula in the Manche department in Normandy, lies the small island, the Île Tatihou .

In a meeting on January 31, 1888, the Departmental Council of the Natural History Museum of Paris ( Muséum national d'histoire naturelle de Paris) approved the establishment of a laboratoire de zoologie maritim in the former quarantine station on the English Channel island of Tatihou. From July 16, 1888, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle Paris operated a real research station in the buildings of the former quarantine station.

The last time the plague came to Europe was in May 1720 , possibly brought in via a ship that had not correctly applied the quarantine regulations during its handling. The epidemic spread through Marseille and Provence from 1720 to 1722. The plague of Marseilles triggered further measures across Europe. The French King Louis XV. felt compelled to have a quarantine station set up on the island of Tatihou in 1721 . This was then given up as such around 1840 and given the function described above.

From the beginning of the First World War an internment camp for Austro-German prisoners of war was organized on the island of Tatihou. Some of the laboratory staff was mobilized so that scientific activities in the laboratory were no longer possible. Local objects and boats were requisitioned by the military authorities (le Tic-Tac, motor boats, etc.) and only released again in 1919.

Tatihou maritime museum

In 1925, the research facility at Tatihou was transferred to the Laboratoire maritime du museum d'histoire naturelle a Saint Servan and later to the Laboratoire maritime de Dinard , and from 1948 until its closure in 1984 it was converted into a rehabilitation center to be expanded.

On June 5, 1992, the Maritime Museum Musée maritime de l'Île Tatihou opened on the island of Tatihou on the occasion of the three-centenary of the Battle of La Hougue. It is housed in a building of the former quarantine station in the upstream Fort de l'Ilet at the port of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.

literature

• Berland, L .: (1924) .- Les Araignées de Tatihou (Manche). Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool., 7: 335-336.
• Joseph Le Terrier, Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (monographie historique et sociologique), éd. Notre-Dame, 1963, réédition Le Livre d'histoire, 2000.
• Musée maritime de l'île de Tatihou: Tatihou, l'histoire d'une île, Saint-Vaaste-la-Hougue, Musée, 1993, 64 pages.

Web links

• Le laboratoire maritime de Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue, Gloubik Sciences. 28 février 2009. Extensive presentation with pictures of the station, in French ( PDF )
• View of a corner of the aquarium area in the laboratoire de Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue [1]
• Drawing of the building complex towards the sea [2]
• Debaz, Josquin: Bibliography dirigée des périodiques scientifiques des stations de biologie marine entre 1872 et 1900 An extensive bibliography of scientific publications, in French ( PDF )
• Debaz, Josquin: Les stations françaises de biologie marine et leurs périodiques entre 1872 et 1914 , 7 juillet 2005 Dissertation in French about and from the station ( PDF )
• Archives du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle [3]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Excerpt from Gloubik Sciences ( PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )  
2. ^ Musée maritime de l'île de Tatihou: Tatihou, l'histoire d'une île, Saint-Vaaste-la-Hougue, Musée, 1993, 64 pages.
3. ↑ Archives du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

Coordinates: 49 ° 35 ′ 20 "  N , 1 ° 14 ′ 50"  W.