Charles Frédéric Girard (8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology. Born in

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. In 1847, he accompanied Agassiz as his assistant to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Three years later, Spencer Fullerton Baird called him to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

to work on its growing collection of North American reptiles, amphibians and fishes. He worked at the museum for the next ten years and published numerous papers, many in collaboration with Baird. In 1854, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Besides his work at the Smithsonian, he managed to earn an

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...

from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1856. In 1859 he returned to France and was awarded the Cuvier Prize by the Institute of France for his work on the North American reptiles and fishes two years later. When the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

broke out, he joined the Confederates as an agent for surgical and medical supplies. After the war, he remained in France and started a medical career. During the Franco-Prussian War he served as a military physician and published an important paper on the

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

after the siege of Paris. He remained active as a medical doctor until ca. 1888. In the following three years, he published a few more papers on natural history. He retired in 1891 and spent the rest of his life in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he died in 1895. __NOTOC__

Eponymy

Girard is commemorated in the names of the following taxa: *'' Girardinus'' Poey, 1854 *''

Girardinichthys ''Girardinichthys'' is a genus of splitfins that are Endemism, endemic to Mexico. These highly Threatened species, threatened fish are native to the upper Lerma River, Lerma and Balsas River, Balsas basins, as well as water systems in the Valley ...

'' Bleeker, 1860 *'' Cambarus girardianus'' Faxon, 1884 *'' Masticophis taeniatus girardi'' ( Stejneger & Barbour, 1917)Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Girard, C.F.", p. 101). *'' Microcyphus girardi'' Desor *'' Synapta girardi'' Pourtalès *'' Vortex girardi'' O. Schmidt, 1857

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girard, Charles Frederic 1822 births 1895 deaths French herpetologists French ichthyologists Harvard University staff Georgetown University School of Medicine alumni Scientists from Mulhouse 19th-century American zoologists 19th-century French zoologists American herpetologists American ichthyologists French emigrants to the United States

Eponymy

See also

References

External links