Maurice Jules Gaston Corneille Caullery (5 September 1868,

Bergues Bergues (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. It is situated to the south of Dunkirk and from the Belgium, Belgian border. Locally it is referred to ...

– 13 July 1958,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Biography

He was born in

in north France on 5 September 1868. His early education was in

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

. He began as a lecturer in

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 1897. From 1901 to 1903 he was a lecturer at the faculty of sciences in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, and from 1903 to 1909, taught classes at the Sorbonne (laboratory of ''évolution des êtres organisés''). In 1909 he succeeded

Alfred Mathieu Giard Alfred Mathieu Giard (8 August 1846 – 8 August 1908) was a French zoologist born in Valenciennes. He served as a professor of zoology at the Faculty of Sciences in Lille. He specialized in parasitology and the genus ''Giardia'' was named after hi ...

(1846-1908) as director of the zoological station in

Wimereux Wimereux (; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France north of Boulogne-sur-Mer, on the banks of the small river Wimereux. The river Slack forms the northern border of the commune and the Englis ...

. In 1923 he opened a new laboratory of ''évolution des êtres organisés'' on Boulevard Raspail in

. Maurice Caullery (1868-1958)- biographie - Archives de l'Institut Pasteur Caullery specialised in parasitic

protozoans Protozoa (: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a polyphyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic debris. Historically ...

and marine

invertebrates Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum ...

. He also worked on

insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...

. His research of ''Siboglinum weberi'' was to become the foundation for establishing the family of beard worms known today as

Siboglinidae Siboglinidae is a family (biology), family of polychaete Annelida, annelid worms whose members made up the former phylum, phyla Pogonophora and Vestimentifera (the giant tube worms). The family is composed of around 100 species of vermiform creatu ...

. Also, he investigated how the various biological aspects of

tunicates Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata ( ). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

and

annelids The annelids (), also known as the segmented worms, are animals that comprise the phylum Annelida (; ). The phylum contains over 22,000 extant species, including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to vario ...

impacted their evolution. In 1915 he was elected president of the

Société zoologique de France La Société zoologique de France (), founded in 1876 by Aimé Bouvier, is a scientific society devoted to Zoology. It publishes a bulletin and organises the Prix Gadeau de Kerville de la Société zoologique de France. List of presidents * 18 ...

, and later on in his career, he served as president of the

Académie des Sciences The French Academy of 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 method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

(1945) and the

Société de biologie The Société de biologie () is a learned society founded in Paris in 1848. The society was conceived during the French Revolution of 1848. The members of the society held regular meetings and published the proceedings in a new scientific journal. ...

(1946). He died in

on 13 July 1958.

Evolution

Caullery was an advocate of Lamarckian evolution and Mendelism.Bowler, Peter J. (1983). ''The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolutionary Theories in the Decades around 1900''. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 116. He argued that modern evolution had stopped and the Lamarckian mechanism had "run out of steam", leaving Mendelian processes in operation. He argued that the inheritance of acquired characters was the main mechanism of evolution but it had only operated in the past.

Awards

He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1930 and an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1948. He was awarded the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958.

Selected writings

* ''Les universités et la vie scientifique aux États-Unis'' (1917)
''Les problèmes de la sexualité''
(1919)
''Le Parasitime et la symbiosis''
(1922) * ''Le Problème de l'évolution'' (1931) * ''Present Theories of Evolution and the Problem of Adaptation'' (1933) * ''Organisme et sexualité'' (1942) * ''Parasitism and Symbiosis'' (1952)Davenport, Demorest. (1954)
''Parasitism and Symbiosis by Maurice Caullery, Averil M. Lysaght. Le Parasitisme et la Symbiose by Maurice Caullery''
''

The Quarterly Review of Biology ''The Quarterly Review of Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of biology. It was established in 1926 by Raymond Pearl. In the 1960s it was purchased by the Stony Brook Foundation when the editor H. Bentley Glass ...

'' 29 (3): 255. * ''Genetics and Heredity'' (1964) * ''A History of Biology'' (1966)

References

* Heim, R. 1960: aullery, M. J. G. ''Year Book Royal Soc. Edinb.'' 60(1957–59) 33-34.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caullery, Maurice 1868 births 1958 deaths Foreign members of the Royal Society French entomologists 19th-century French zoologists Lamarckism Members of the French Academy of Sciences People from Bergues 20th-century French zoologists