Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French naturalist and an active

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. He is known for his contribution to the

Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

's great work, the '' Histoire Naturelle''.

Biography

Lacépède was born at

Agen The commune of Agen (, ; ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. Geography The city of Agen lies in the southwestern departme ...

Guienne Guyenne or Guienne (, ; oc, Guiana ) was an old French province which corresponded roughly to the Roman province of ''Aquitania Secunda'' and the archdiocese of Bordeaux. The name "Guyenne" comes from ''Aguyenne'', a popular transformation of ...

. His education was carefully conducted by his father, and the early perusal of Buffon's Natural History ('' Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière'') awakened his interest in that branch of study, which absorbed his chief attention. His leisure he devoted to music, in which, besides becoming a good performer on the piano and organ, he acquired considerable mastery of composition, two of his operas (which were never published) meeting with the high approval of

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he ...

; in 1781–1785 he also brought out in two volumes his ''Poétique de la musique''. Meantime he wrote two treatises, ''Essai sur l'électricité'' (1781) and ''Physique générale et particulière'' (1782–1784), which gained him the friendship of Buffon, who in 1785 appointed him subdemonstrator in the Jardin du Roi, and proposed that he continue Buffon's ''Histoire naturelle''. This continuation was published under the titles ''Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents''. ''Tome premier'' (1788) and ''Histoire naturelle des ''serpents''. Tome second'' (1789). Paris 75005 Grande Galerie de l'Evolution 20070804

Paris 75005 Grande Galerie de l'Evolution 20070804

After the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

Lacépède became a member of the Legislative Assembly, but during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First French Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public Capital punishment, executions took pl ...

he left Paris, his life having become endangered by his disapproval of the massacres. When the Jardin du Roi was reorganised as the Jardin des Plantes and as the

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

in 1793, Lacépède was appointed to the chair allocated to the study of reptiles and fishes. In 1798, he published the first volume of ''Histoire naturelle des poissons'', the fifth volume appearing in 1803, and in 1804 appeared his ''Histoire des cétacées''. From this period until his death the part he took in politics prevented him making any further contribution of importance to science. In 1799, he became a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, in 1801 president of the senate (a role he also fulfilled in 1807–08 and 1811–13), in 1803 grand chancellor of the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, in 1804 minister of state, and at the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...

in 1819 he was created a peer of France. He died at Épinay-sur-Seine. During the latter part of his life he wrote ''Histoire générale physique et civile de l'Europe'', published posthumously in 18 volumes, 1826. David d'Angers - Lacepede

He was elected perpetual secretary of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...

at the

Institute of France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...

in 1796, a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

in 1806 and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1812. Lacépède was initiated into

freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

at 22 years old at Les Neuf Sœurs lodge in Paris, by Jérôme Lalande the worshipfull master himself, who wanted a naturalist for his prestigious lodge. In 1785, Lacépède created his own lodge : "Les Frères Initiés". After the Revolution, he helped Cambacérès to rebuild a French freemasonry submitted to the Emperor, and joined "Saint-Napoléon" lodge where General Kellermann was worshipfull master. He finished his masonic life as dignitary of the Suprême Conseil de France. *

Evolution

Lacépède was an early

evolutionary Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variati ...

thinker. He argued for the

transmutation of species Transmutation of species and transformism are unproven 18th and 19th-century evolutionary ideas about the change of one species into another that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The French ''Transformisme'' was a term used ...

. He believed that species change over time and may go extinct from geological cataclysms or become "metamorphosed" into new species. In his book ''Histoire naturelle des poissons'', he wrote:

"The species can undergo such a large number of modifications in its forms and qualities, that without losing its vital capacity, it may be, by its latest conformation and properties, farther removed from its original state than from a different species: it is in that case metamorphosed into a new species."

Tributes

* Lacepede Bay in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

, and the Lacepede Islands off the northern coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

, are named after him. * The street Rue Lacépède near the Jardin des Plantes and the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 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 ...

was named after him. * A

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

of gecko

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

, '' Phelsuma cepediana'', commonly known as the blue-tailed day gecko, is named in his honour.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Lacépède", p. 149).

Works

*''Les ages de la nature et histoire de l'espèce humaine.'' Paris 1830 p.m. *''Histoire naturelle de l'homme.'' Pitois-Le Vrault, Paris 1827 p.m. *
Histoire générale, physique et civile de l'Europe.
' Cellot, Mame, Delaunay-Vallée & de Mat, Paris, Brüssel 1826 p.m. *''Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipares, serpents, poissons et cétacées.'' Eymery, Paris 1825. *''Histoire naturelle des cétacées.'' Plassan, Paris 1804. *''Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Dolomieu.'' Bossange, Paris 1802. *''La menagerie du Museum national d'histoire naturelle.'' Miger, Paris 1801–04. *''Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours de zoologie.'' Plassan, Paris 1801. *''Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours d'histoire naturelle.'' Plassan, Paris 1799. * *''Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours d'histoire naturelle des animaux vertébrés et a sang rouge.'' Plassan, Paris 1798. *''Discours d'ouverture du Cours d'histoire naturelle.'' Paris 1797. *
Histoire naturelle des serpents. Tome second.
' de Thou, Paris 1789. *
Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpens. Tome premier.
'' de Thou, Paris 1788. *''Vie de Buffon.'' Maradan, Amsterdam 1788. *
La poétique de la musique
'' Paris 1785. *
Physique générale et particulière
'' Paris 1782–84. *''Essai sur l'électricité naturelle et artificielle.'' Paris 1781.

References

External links