Stéphane Schmitt

Studies on Animals and the Rise of Comparative Anatomy at and around the Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences in the Eighteenth Century.

Argument This paper aims to understand the emergence of comparative anatomy in the eighteenth century in the Parisian Académie Royale des Sciences. As early as the 1670s, a program centered on animal anatomy was conceived, which was a first attempt to give some autonomy to studies on animals and to link anatomy with natural history, but it declined after 1690. However, a variety of studies on animals was published in the Mémoires of the Académie during the eighteenth century. We propose a descriptive typology of them in order to explore the status of animals and the significance of anatomy in each type, and to determine, in particular, which elements of Perraults program were passed on at the Académie throughout the century. We discuss the influence of this legacy on the development of comparative anatomy after 1750, especially in Daubentons work.

Lacepède’s Syncretic Contribution to the Debates on Natural History in France Around 1800

Lacepède was a key figure in the French intellectual world from the Old Regime to the Restoration, sinc e he was not only a scientist, but also a musician, a writer, and a politician. His brilliant career is a good example of the progress of the social status of scientists in France around 1800. In the life sciences, he was considered the heir to Buffon and continued the latter’s Histoire naturelle, but he also borrowed ideas from anti-Buffonian (e.g. Linnaean) scientists. He broached many important subjects such as the nature of man, the classification of animals, the concept of species, and the history of the Earth. All these topics led to tensions in the French sciences, but Lacepède dealt with them in a consensual, indeed even ambiguous way. For example, he held transformist views, but his concept of evolution was far less precise and daring than Lamarck’s contemporaneous attempts. His somewhat confused eclecticism allowed him to be accepted by opposing camps of the French scientific community at that time and makes his case interesting for historians, since the opinions of such an opportunistic figure can illuminate the figure of the French intellectual better than more original works could do. In turn, Lacepède’s important social and scientific position gave his views a significant visibility. In this sense, his contributions probably exerted an influence, in particular with regard to the emergence of transformist theories.

Du feuillet au gêne

D’abord science d’observation, l’embryologie est devenue experimentale au XIXe siecle. En 1910, Thomas Hunt Morgan, qui cherchait a comprendre le developpement de l’embryon de vertebre, jugea necessaire de se mettre a l’etude de l’heredite. Il se tourna vers la Drosophile et crea la genetique. Embryologie et genetique avaient, de toute evidence, des relations etroites, mais les desaccords qui se manifesterent rapidement exprimaient de profondes differences ; differences de tradition, d’hypotheses et de methodes. Les geneticiens, par exemple, etaient incapables d’expliquer comment les genes pouvaient rendre compte du plan d’un organisme, ou d’un gradient dans un œuf, ou de la polarite d’un embryon precoce. A la fin du dernier siecle, les avancees de la biologie moleculaire et la naissance du genie genetique ont entierement transforme l’embryologie, en donnant un acces a l’etude des reactions qui sous-tendent le developpement de l’embryon. Longtemps restee descriptive, l’embryologie ou, comme on dit aujourd’hui, la biologie du developpement, est devenue moleculaire. C’est dire qu’en un siecle, cette etude a change plusieurs fois de concepts, de terminologie et de techniques experimentales.

Epigraphs as Parts of Text in Natural History Books in the Eighteenth Century: Between Intertextuality and the Architecture of the Book

This chapter investigates the practice of employing epigraphs in eighteenth-century natural history books. It examines, quantitatively and qualitatively, the significance of these very special parts of text, which are elements of both paratext and intertextuality, and which are very widespread in every kind of literature during the Enlightenment. We aim to describe their origin, their role in the architecture and the organization of the book, as well as the ways they establish connections with other works. We attempt to understand their various functions and, in that respect, the differences between the uses of epigraphs in several European languages are considered. We argue that besides their aesthetic role, epigraphs were often endowed with a diversity of other functions by authors as well as publishers and readers, in connection with the content of the book, the other elements of the paratext (title, front illustrations, etc.) and the context. Accordingly, epigraphs make sense, for example, of the aims of the authors, the patronage networks, and the intended targeted and real audience of scientific works.

Scientific Knowledge of Animals in Encyclopedias from around 1700 to 1860

In this article we examine scientific knowledge of animals and disciplines pertaining to them in British, French, and German encyclopedias from around 1700 to the time of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. As our corpus includes scholarly encyclopedias with entries on animals written by specialists, our article is meant to help define the place of the animal in the period’s developing scientific conceptions. At the same time, our goal is to study differences in the representations of animals among encyclopedias, notably between popular and scholarly encyclopedias. By studying the sources of encyclopedias’ entries on animals, we will establish the pathways by which representations of animals were formed, thus connecting knowledge of animals to commercial and literary processes. By studying the intellectual premises of the entries, we will connect knowledge of animals to reading publics, thereby illuminating the status of encyclopedias as intermediaries in the movement of knowledge.

Animals in Encyclopedias from around 1700 to 1860

In this article we examine scientific knowledge of animals and disciplines pertaining to them in British, French, and German encyclopedias from around 1700 to the time of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. As our corpus includes scholarly encyclopedias with entries on animals written by specialists, our article is meant to help define the place of the animal in the period’s developing scientific conceptions. At the same time, our goal is to study differences in the representations of animals among encyclopedias, notably between popular and scholarly encyclopedias. By studying the sources of encyclopedias’ entries on animals, we will establish the pathways by which representations of animals were formed, thus connecting knowledge of animals to commercial and literary processes. By studying the intellectual premises of the entries, we will connect knowledge of animals to reading publics, thereby illuminating the status of encyclopedias as intermediaries in the movement of knowledge.