Alexandre Brongniart
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Alexandre Brongniart (5 February 17707 October 1847) was a French
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
,
mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...
,
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
,
paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
, and
zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
, who collaborated with
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in na ...
on a study of the
geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other Astronomical object, astronomical objects, the features or rock (geology), rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology ...
of the region around
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. Observing
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
content as well as
lithology The lithology of a rock unit is a description of its physical characteristics visible at outcrop, in hand or core samples, or with low magnification microscopy. Physical characteristics include colour, texture, grain size, and composition. Li ...
in sequences, he classified
Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
formations and was responsible for defining 19th century geological studies as a subject of science by assembling observations and classifications. Brongniart was also the founder of the Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres (National Museum of Ceramics), having been director of the Sèvres Porcelain Factory from 1800 to 1847.


Life

He was born in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, the son of the architect
Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (; 15 February 1739 – 6 June 1813) was a prominent French architect. Biography Born in Paris, France. A prominent member of Parisian society, in 1767 he married Anne-Louise d'Egremont. The couple became frie ...
and father of the botanist
Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart () FRS FRSE FGS (14 January 1801 – 18 February 1876) was a French botanist. He was the son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart and grandson of the architect, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Brongniart's pioneeri ...
. In 1797, he became an instructor of natural history at the Central School of the Four Nations, and became the professor of mineralogy in 1822 at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He was appointed in 1800 by Napoleon's minister of the interior
Lucien Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 ...
director of the revitalized porcelain manufactory at Sèvres, holding this role until death. The young man took to the position a combination of his training as a scientist— especially as a mining engineer relevant to the chemistry of
ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...
s— his managerial talents and financial acumen and his cultivated understanding of neoclassical esthetic. He remained in charge of Sèvres, through regime changes, for 47 years. Brongniart introduced a new classification of
reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalia ...
s and wrote several treatises on
mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...
and the ceramic arts. He also made an extensive study of
trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...
s and made pioneering contributions to
stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers ( strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...
by developing fossil markers for dating strata. He was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1819 and a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...
in 1823.


Work

In his early ages, Brongniart focused on the studies of reptiles and published ''Essai dune classification naturally des reptiles'' in 1800, which he compared the anatomy of reptiles in order to classify them into different groups. The four classifications were Chelonia,
Sauria Sauria is the clade containing the most recent common ancestor of archosaurs (such as crocodilians, dinosaurs, etc.) and lepidosaurs ( lizards and kin), and all its descendants. Since most molecular phylogenies recover turtles as more closely ...
,
Ophidia __FORCETOC__ Ophidia (also known as Pan-Serpentes) is a group of squamate reptiles including modern snakes and reptiles more closely related to snakes than to other living groups of lizards. Ophidia was defined as the "most recent common ancest ...
and
Batrachia The Batrachia are a clade of amphibians that includes frogs and salamanders, but not caecilians nor the extinct allocaudates. The name Batrachia was first used by French zoologist Pierre André Latreille in 1800 to refer to frogs, but has more ...
. However, even-though he classified Batrachia as a sub-class of Reptilia, Brongniart noticed a huge difference in the anatomy of Batrachia compared to the rest of the class. This problem was resolved in 1804 by
Pierre Latreille Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
by replacing Batrachia into a class called
Amphibian Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbo ...
s, and the rest of the Reptilia grouping was retained. Therefore, Batrachians is the only group that is no longer recognized as reptiles as they are amphibians. The most significant work for Brongniart was
Essai sur la géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris
' in collaboration with
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in na ...
on studies of geology around Paris in 1811. At the time, Cuvier was trying figure out the periods the fossils are from and to reconstruct the extinct mammals based on the periods they are from. Their paper "''Essai sur la géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris"'' identified nine formations that had been formed over a very long period of time. The formations, starting with the oldest, were called the Chalk, Argile Plastique, Calcaire grossier, Calcaire silicieux, Formation gypseuse, Sabels et Gres marins, Gres sans coquilliers, Terrain d’eau douce, and Limon d’aterrissement. Brongniart found that some of th
strata
had marine mollusk fossils, and some had fresh water mollusk fossils. He used the alternation of these marine and fresh water layers to disproved the theory that strata was deposited by a shrinking ocean. The paper was first read to the public on April, 1808 but was extended in June, 1808 and later on 1811. They were the among the first people to study the earth by its fossil content instead of relying on the characteristics of rocks. During the collaboration, they also found evidences against Abraham Werner's Neptunism. The results triggered Cuvier into creating catastrophism. Another significant contribution in stratigraphy was using the fossil content in the strata he examined in Paris to identify strata in other locations instead of depth or lithology, as rocks can't be expected to have the exact same characteristics or depth if deposited under different conditions. In 1822, Brongniart published the first full-length study of trilobites in which he classified a variety from Europe and North America and tried to group them based on age. This work contributed to later work on Paleozoic stratigraphy.


Publications

*''Essai dune classification naturalle des reptiles'' (1800) *''Memoires de l’Institut de France'' (1806) *''Traite Elementaire de Mineralogie'' (1807) *
Essai sur la géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris
' (1811) *''Annales du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle'' (1811) *''Memoires de l’Institut Imperial de France'' (1811) *''Sur les terrains qui paraissent avoir ete forms sous l’eau douce'' (1810) *''Histoire naturelle des crustaces fossils, sous les rapports zoologiques et geologiques'' (1822) *''Memoire ser les terrains de sediment superieurs calcaro-trappeens du Vicentin, et sur qui peuvent se rapporter a la meme epoque'' (1823) *''Classification et caracteres mineralogiques des roches homogenes et heterogenes'' (1827)


Family

His wife was Cecile Coquebert de Montbret (1782–1862), the daughter of the French consul to England, Charles-Etienne Coquebert de Montbret. They had three children together. Their son,
Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart () FRS FRSE FGS (14 January 1801 – 18 February 1876) was a French botanist. He was the son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart and grandson of the architect, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Brongniart's pioneeri ...
, became a major figure in the study of paleobotany. Their daughter Hermine (1803–1890) married
Jean Baptiste Dumas Jean Baptiste André Dumas (14 July 180010 April 1884) was a French chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights (relative atomic masses) and molecular weights by measuring v ...
, and their other daughter Mathilde (1808–1882) married
Jean Victoir Audouin Jean Victor Audouin (27 April 1797 – 9 November 1841), sometimes Victor Audouin, was a French naturalist, an entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and malacologist. Biography Audouin was born in Paris and was educated in the field of medi ...
.


Botanical reference


Bibliography

* Brongniart, Alex., Essai d'une classification naturelle des Reptiles. in: Millin, Magas. encycl. V. 6. 1799. p. 184–201. – (Mit Abbildgn. bbildungen Bulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomatique. II, an 8. p. 81–82. 89–91.
Essai d'une classification naturelle des Reptiles. (Mit 2 Taf. afeln in: Mém. prés. à l'Inst. Sciences math. et phys. Tom. 1. 1805. p. 587–637. * By HathiTrust

it's something like: *: Alex. Brongniart: ''Essai d'une classification naturelle des reptiles<, !-- , par le citoyen Alex. Brongniart --, >.'' In: ''Bulletin des sciences, par la Sociéte philomathatique e Paris?'' om. II?Paris, ''pluviose, an 8 de la République ainfull (5th month of the French Republic), year 8 of the Republic', No. 35, p. 81–82 & ''ventose, an 8 de la République indfull (6th month of the French Republic), year 8 of the Republic', No. 36, p. 89–91. --> * Alexexandre Brongniart: ''Essai d'une classification naturelle des reptiles.'' In: ''Magasin encyclopédique, ou journal des sciences, des lettres et des arts; rédigé par A. L. Millin. V. année. Tome sixième.'' Paris, ''an VIII'' the_Republic).html" ;"title="French_First_Republic.html" ;"title="ear 8 (of French First Republic">the Republic)">French_First_Republic.html" ;"title="ear 8 (of French First Republic">the Republic)– 1799, p. 184–201
HathiTrust
. * Brongniart, A. 1800. ''Essai d'une classification naturelle des reptiles''. Bulletin de la Société Philomatique. 2 (36): 89–91. * Alexandre Brongniart: ''Essai d'une classification naturelle des reptiles.'' In: ''Mémoires présentés a l'Institut des Sciences, lettres et arts, par divers savans, et lus dans ses assemblées. Sciences mathématiques et physiques. Tome premier.'' Paris, ''frimaire an XIV'' [frimaire year 14 (of French First Republic, the Republic)] = 1805, p. 587–637
HathiTrust
. *


References

* Rudwick, Martin J.S., ''Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brongniart, Alexandre 19th-century French chemists 19th-century French geologists French mineralogists 1770 births 1847 deaths French zoologists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Foreign Members of the Royal Society Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery