Joseph Paul Gaimard

Joseph Paul Gaimard (lithograph by Émile Lassalle)

Joseph Paul Gaimard (31 January 1796 10 December 1858) [1] was a French naval surgeon and naturalist.

Biography

Gaimard was born at Saint-Zacharie on January 31, 1793. He studied medicine at the naval medical school in Toulon, subsequently earning his qualifications as a naval surgeon. Along with Jean René Constant Quoy, he served as naturalist on the ships L'Uranie under Louis de Freycinet 1817-1820, and L'Astrolabe under Jules Dumont d'Urville 1826-1829.[2] During this voyage they discovered the now extinct giant skink of Tonga, Tachygia microlepis.[3]

From his studies of cholera in Europe, he co-authored [4] Du choléra-morbus en Russie, en Prusse et en Autriche, pendant les années 1831-1832 (Cholera morbus in Russia, Prussia and Austria in the years 1831 & 1832).[2][5]

Iceland. Engraving from Gaimard 1835

He was the scientific leader on La Recherche (1835–1836) during its expedition to the Arctic Sea,[6][7] making voyages to coastal Iceland and Greenland from 27 April to 13 September 1835 and from 21 May to 26 September 1836. Along with exploratory and scientific goals, the crew of the expedition was tasked with searching for Jules de Blosseville, who disappeared aboard the Lilloise in Arctic waters a few years earlier.[8][9] Out of these trips came the 9-volume Voyage en Islande et au Groënland [10] (8 text volumes, one of geographical illustrations), which was said at the time to be the definitive study of the islands.

From 1838 to 1840, again aboard La Recherche, he was the leader of a scientific expedition to Lapland, Spitzbergen and the Faroe Islands.[11]

At least two species have been named in his honor:

Writings

His scientific publications include a major work on the results of each of these four great expeditions.

See also

Notes

  1. Larousse Encyclopedia
  2. 1 2 Google Books Discovery of Australia's Fishes: A History of Australian Ichthyology to 1930 by Brian Saunders
  3. Tongan Giant Skink A gap in nature: discovering the world's extinct animals by Tim Fridtjof Flannery
  4. co-authored with Nicolas Vincent Auguste Gerardin (1790-1868)
  5. 1 2 World Cat Identities (publications)
  6. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Gaimard, Joseph Paul
  7. Note: François Thomas Tréhouart was commanding officer of La Recherche.
  8. Expedition: Sea around us Tréhouart: in search of Baron de Blosseville
  9. Data Fisheries Joseph Paul Gaimard - Expeditions & Surveys
  10. Google Books Voyage en Islande et au Groënland exécuté pendant les années 1835 et 1836 sur la corvette La Rocherche
  11. Ships on stamps La Recherce’s Scientific Expedition] 1838 – 40; Vol. 55, No. 3 November–December 2008
  12. Open Library Voyage autour du monde
  13. Gallica Voyages en Scandinavie, en Laponie, au Spitzberg et aux Feröe

External links

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