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Natural History

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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck fought in the Pomeranian War with Prussia, and was awarded a commission for bravery on the battlefield.[2] At his post in Monaco, Lamarck became interested in natural history and resolved to study medicine.[3] He retired from the army after being injured in 1766, and returned to his medical studies.[3] Lamarck developed a particular interest in botany, and later, after he published a three-volume work Flore française, he gained membership of the French Academy of Sciences in 1779.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Lamarck became involved in the Jardin des Plantes and was appointed to the Chair of Botany in 1788. William Kirby (entomologist) William Kirby (19 September 1759 – 4 July 1850) was an English entomologist, an original member of the Linnean Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society, as well as a country priest, making him an eminent parson-naturalist.[1][2] He is considered the "founder of entomology".

William Kirby (entomologist)

Kirby was brought to the study of natural history by Dr Nicholas Gwynn (a friend of Boerhaave's), who introduced him to Sir James Edward Smith at Ipswich in 1791. Soon afterwards, he corresponded with Smith, seeking advice in the foundation of a natural history museum at Ipswich. Among his early friends were the naturalists Charles Sutton and Thomas Marsham, with whom he made lengthy scientific excursions, as later with William Jackson Hooker and others, becoming a leading parson-naturalist.[4][5] His name appears on the original list of Fellows of the Linnean Society.

He delivered the first of his many papers on 7 May 1793, on Three New Species of Hirudo (Linn. Trans. William Kirby With Edward Sabine and J.E. Johann Wilhelm Meigen. Johann Wilhelm Meigen Johann Wilhelm Meigen (3 May 1764 – 11 July 1845) was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera.

Johann Wilhelm Meigen

Georges Cuvier. Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier (French: [kyvje]; August 23, 1769 – May 13, 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist.

Georges Cuvier

Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early nineteenth century and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils. Among his other accomplishments, Cuvier established that elephant-like bones found in the USA belonged to an extinct animal he later would name as a mastodon, and that a large skeleton dug up in Paraguay was of Megatherium, a giant, prehistoric sloth.

He also named (but did not discover) the aquatic reptile Mosasaurus and the pterosaur Pterodactylus, and was one of the first people to suggest the earth had been dominated by reptiles, rather than mammals, in prehistoric times. Cuvier also is remembered for strongly opposing the evolutionary theories of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown FRSE FRS FLS MWS (21 December 1773 – 10 June 1858) was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope.

Robert Brown (botanist)

His contributions include one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the cell nucleus and cytoplasmic streaming; the observation of Brownian motion; early work on plant pollination and fertilisation, including being the first to recognise the fundamental difference between gymnosperms and angiosperms; and some of the earliest studies in palynology. Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Lorenz Oken. Lorenz Oken (1 August 1779 – 11 August 1851) was a German naturalist, botanist, biologist, and ornithologist.

Lorenz Oken

Oken was born Lorenz Okenfuss (German: Okenfuß) in Bohlsbach (now part of Offenburg), Ortenau, Baden, and studied natural history and medicine at the universities of Freiburg and Würzburg. He went on to the University of Göttingen, where he became a Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer), and shortened his name to Oken. As Lorenz Oken, he published a small work entitled Grundriss der Naturphilosophie, der Theorie der Sinne, mit der darauf gegründeten Classification der Thiere (1802). This was the first of a series of works which established him as a leader of the movement of "Naturphilosophie" in Germany.

Birthplace in Ortenau (Bohlsbach, Baden). In it he extended to physical science the philosophical principles which Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) had applied to epistemology and morality.

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Thomas Say. Thomas Say (June 27, 1787—October 10, 1834) was an American naturalist, entomologist, malacologist, herpetologist and carcinologist.

Thomas Say

A taxonomist, he is widely considered the father of descriptive entomology in the United States. The Entomological Society of America maintains several series of publications and awards named for him. Karl Ernst von Baer. Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer, Edler von Huthorn (Russian: Карл Эрнст фон Бэр), 28 February [O.S. 17 February] 1792 – 28 November [O.S. 16 November] 1876 was an Estonian scientist and explorer.

Karl Ernst von Baer

Baer is also known in Russia as Karl Maksimovich Baer (Russian: Карл Макси́мович Бэр). Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876), German naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist, was one of the most famous and productive scientists of his time.

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg

Early collections[edit] The son of a judge, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg was born in Delitzsch, near Leipzig. Thomas Bell (zoologist) Thomas Bell Thomas Bell FRS (11 October 1792 – 13 March 1880) was an English zoologist, surgeon and writer, born in Poole, Dorset, England.

Thomas Bell (zoologist)

Terrapene clausa from Thomas Bell's "A Monograph of the Testudinata" London: 1832-1836. Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɔʁʒ lwi ləklɛʁ kɔ̃t də byfɔ̃]; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.

His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his Histoire naturelle during his lifetime; with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death.[1] It has been said that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century".[2] Buffon held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des Plantes; it is the French equivalent of Kew Gardens. Early life[edit] Career[edit] Carl Linnaeus. Carl Linnaeus (23 May[note 1] 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as.

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo. James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (baptised 25 October 1714; died 26 May 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar of linguistic evolution, philosopher and deist. He is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical linguistics.[1] In 1767 he became a judge in the Court of Session. As such, Burnett adopted an honorary title based on the name of his father's estate and family seat, Monboddo House. Gilbert White.

Gilbert White FRS (18 July 1720 – 26 June 1793) was a "parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist and ornithologist. He remained unmarried and a curate all his life. He is best known for his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. Life[edit] Gilbert White's house, The Wakes, now a museum, viewed from the back gardens, taken in September 2010. White is regarded by many as England's first ecologist, and one of those who shaped the modern attitude of respect for nature.[2] He said of the earthworm:[3] Charles Bonnet. Chain of being from Traité d'insectologie, 1745 Charles Bonnet (French: [bɔnɛ]; 13 March 1720 – 20 May 1793), Genevan[1] naturalist and philosophical writer, was born at Geneva, of a French family driven into the region by the religious persecution in the 16th century. Life and work[edit] Bonnet's life was uneventful. He seems never to have left the Geneva region, nor does he appear to have taken any part in public affairs except for the period between 1752 and 1768, during which he was a member of the council of the republic.

James Hutton. Through observation and carefully reasoned geological arguments, Hutton came to believe that the Earth was perpetually being formed; he recognized that the history of the Earth could be determined by understanding how processes such as erosion and sedimentation work in the present day. His theories of geology and geologic time,[4] also called deep time,[5] came to be included in theories which were called plutonism and uniformitarianism. Some of his writings anticipated the Gaia hypothesis. Erasmus Darwin. Erasmus Darwin (12 December 1731 – 18 April 1802) was an English physician. Joseph Banks. Signature of Sir Joseph Banks from the book National Portrait Gallery Volume I published 1830 Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS (24 February [O.S. 13 February] 1743 – 19 June 1820)[1] was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771).[2] Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of the eucalyptus, the acacia, and the genus named after him, Banksia.

Approximately 80 species of plants bear Banks's name. Banks was also the leading founder of the African Association, a British organization dedicated to the exploration of Africa, and a member of the Society of Dilettanti, which helped to establish the Royal Academy.