Frédéric Gérard

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Frédéric Gérard (1806-1857) was a French botanist and early evolutionary thinker.

Gérard was influenced by the ideas of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.[1] He was editor in chief of Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle, which he contributed to.[2] He authored Extraits du Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle. In 1845, in the Dictionnaire, he coined the expression "theory of the evolution of organized beings".[2] Science historian Goulven Laurent argued that Gérard was the first to propose a clear scientific theory of evolution (1844-1845), and that he used the term "evolution" rather than transformism.[3] By evolution, Gérard was referring to transformation of species over time by direct pressure from a changing environment.[4] Charles Darwin had read an extract "Geographie zoologique" from this work in 1845.[5]

Selected publications[edit]

  • De la description en histoire naturelle (1844)
  • Extraits du Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle (1845)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bange R; Bange C. (1995). Frédéric Gérard (1806-1857), un disciple de Lamarck et de Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, théoricien de l'évolution. Bulletinde la Société d'histoire et d'épistémologie des sciences de la vie 2 (1): 89-97.
  2. ^ a b Tassy, Pascal. (1993). The Message of Fossils. McGraw-Hill Ryerson p. 38. ISBN 978-0070629479
  3. ^ Cahan, David. (2003). From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing The History Of Nineteenth-Century Science. University of Chicago Press. p. 121. ISBN 0-226-08927-4
  4. ^ Laurent, Goulven. (1987). Paléontologie et évolution en France de 1800 à 1860: une histoire des idées de Cuvier et Lamarck à Darwin. Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. p. 13. ISBN 978-2735501267 "It is to the otherwise obscure Frédéric Gérard that Goulven Laurent gives the credit for formulating the earliest clear exposition of "une véritable théorie scientifique de l'Evolution". He published it in the Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle, edited by Charles d'Orbigny, in 1844-45. By "évolution" Gérard meant transformation of species over time, an effect produced in his theory by the direct pressure of a changing an environment."
  5. ^ Burkhardt, Frederick. (1990). The Correspondence of Charles Darwin:, Volume 6; Volumes 1856-1857. Cambridge University Press. p. 215. ISBN 0-521-25586-4

Further reading[edit]

  • Goulven Laurent. (2001). La naissance du transformisme: Lamarck entre Linné et Darwin. Vuibert.
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