René Primevère Lesson
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René Primevère Lesson (20 March 1794 – 28 April 1849) was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist.
He was born at Rochefort, and entered the Naval Medical School there at the age of sixteen. He served in the French Navy during the Napoleonic Wars; in 1811 he was third surgeon on the frigate Saal, and in 1813 second surgeon on the Regulus.[citation needed]
In 1816 Lesson changed his classification to pharmacist and served on Duperrey's round-the-world voyage of La Coquille (1822–25) as pharmacist and botanist, and was also responsible for collecting natural history specimens with his fellow surgeon Prosper Garnot and officer Dumont d'Urville. Lesson became the first naturalist to see live birds of paradise in the Moluccas and New Guinea.[citation needed]
On returning to Paris, he spent seven years preparing the vertebrate zoological section of the official account of the expedition: Voyage au tour du monde sur La Coquille (1826–39). During this time he also produced Manuel d'Ornithologie (1828), Traité d'Ornithologie (1831), Centurie Zoologique (1830–32) and Illustrations de Zoologie (1832–35).[citation needed] Lesson also produced several monographs on hummingbirds and one book on birds of paradise.
In the field of herpetology he described many new species of amphibians[1] and reptiles.[2]
In 1832 he became Deputy Chief Pharmacist and later (1839) Chief Pharmacist for the Navy at Rochefort. He received the Légion d'honneur in 1847.
His experience as a ship's surgeon resulted in his two-volume Manuel d'Histoire Naturelle Médicale et de Pharmacologie (1833), intended as a handbook for naval surgeons.
René Primevère Lesson is sometimes confused with his brother Pierre-Adolphe, who was also a doctor and sailed with d'Urville in 1826.
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See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Amphibian Species of the World. http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/.
- ^ The Reptile Database. http://www.reptile-database.org.
Bibliography [edit]
By Lesson [edit]
- Lessson, P. (1837). Journal de la navigation autour du globe, de la frégate La Thétis et de la corvette L'Espérance, pendant les années 1824, 1825 et 1826 :publié par ordre du roi sous les auspices du Département de la marine par baron de Bougainville A. Bertrand, Paris.
- Lesson, P. (1838). Compléments de Buffon. Pourrat Frères, Paris.
- Lesson, P (1843). Histoire naturelle des zoophytes. Acalèphes. Librairie encyclopédique de Roret, Paris.
About Lesson [edit]
- Baillière, J.B. (1840). Species des mammifères bimanes et quadrumanes; suivi d'un mémoire sur les Oryctéropes, Paris.
- Duquy, Raymond (1995). René Primevère Lesson. Un voyage autour du monde. in Aventures scientifiques. Savants en Poitou-Charentes du XVIe au XXe siècle (DHOMBRES J., dir.), Les éditions de l’Actualité Poitou-Charentes (Poitiers) : 136–147. ISBN 2-911320-00-X
External links [edit]
- Gallica: works by René Primevère Lesson Note: "Recherche" is the French for "search".
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