Buffon Georges Louis Leclerc contribution to biology. Georges Buffon - biography, information, personal life

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon(fr. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon ) or simply Buffon; September 7, Montbard, Burgundy - April 16, Paris) - French naturalist, biologist, mathematician, naturalist and writer of the 18th century. He expressed the idea of ​​the unity of flora and fauna.

Biography

Attempts to systematize

While Linnaeus, who was born in the same year, set himself the task of creating the formal side of science, systematics and classification, Buffon tried to oppose the strict methodical course of describing the nature and appearance of animals with their customs and lifestyle, and thereby arouse the interest of educated people in animal world. Accordingly, his plan was to collect individual facts from all branches of natural science and use them to elucidate the system of nature. But to carry out this plan, he lacked both solid knowledge and patience in laborious research. Endowed with a vivid imagination and inclined to resolve doubts with brilliant hypotheses, he could not adapt himself to a strict scientific method Linnean school. An important merit of Buffon is that he put an end to the confusion of positive theology with natural science. This desire did not remain without influence outside of France. At the suggestion of Buffon, free views, despite the strong opposition of Haller, Bonnet and some German scientists, made their way in all directions, and in addition, his observations gave impetus to deeper scientific research.

Significance of Buffon's works

With scientific point Buffon's writings are of little value today, while they are still an example of an oratorical, sometimes grandiloquent style. His philosophical attempts to explain the phenomena of nature found a sharp opponent already in Condillac and could only attract to themselves as a poetic representation of nature; such, for example, is the theory of the Earth (“the epoch of nature”) written in the most brilliant style. Observations on the life of animals are rarely collected by him, but cleverly processed, although not from a physiological point of view. scientific significance also have the systematic work of Daubanton, a comrade of Buffon, who took a serious part in " natural history of mammals» Buffon.

In contrast to K. Linnaeus, who defended the idea of ​​the constancy of species in his classification, Buffon expressed progressive ideas about the variability of species under the influence of environmental conditions (climate, nutrition, etc.). In the field of geology, Buffon systematized the factual material known at that time and developed a number of theoretical questions about the development the globe and its surface.

Bibliography

Some of Buffon's writings are devoted to the sciences of the earth. In The Theory of the Earth (1749), he put forward the hypothesis of the formation of the globe as a fragment, torn off from the Sun by a comet falling on it and gradually cooling down to the very center. Buffon exaggerated the significance of the geological activity of the sea and underestimated the volcanic phenomena and tectonic movements in the history of the Earth. He owns the hypothesis of the development of the globe and its surface.

In The Natural History of Animals, mammals, birds, and most of fish; it began in 1749 (3 vols.) and ended in 1783 (24th vol.). It also contains experiments on geogeny, anthropology, etc. In it, he described many animals and put forward a position on the unity of flora and fauna. In this work, he also claimed that man descended from apes. This caused a strong outcry, and the book was publicly burned by an executioner. Other sources claim that he eventually rejected the idea of ​​man from apes, which was put forward by James Burnett.

Buffon's writings were published frequently, usually under the title " Natural history» ( Histoire naturelle generale et particulière):

• The best edition in 36 volumes, Paris, 1749-1788
• Ed. Flourance, in 12 volumes, Paris, 1802
• Ed. Lamour and Desmarais, in 40 volumes, 1824-1832
• Ed. Clave. Complete Works, Paris, 1853-1854

There are translations and excerpts from them in almost all European languages.

Articles

The famous French naturalist compiled several remarkable articles relating to forestry and the study of the technical properties of wood. In volume III Supplement a l'histoire naturelle» (Paris, MDCCLXXVI) memoirs are placed:

• XI - « Experiences sur la force du bois”, which outlines the author’s research on the density, hardness and heaviness of wood;
• XII - consists of two parts:
  • in the first article Moyen facile d'augmenter la solidite, la force et la duree du bois" indicates a simple means for increasing the density, hardness and strength of wood by removing the bark on trees still growing, in the other - " Experiences sur le dessèchement du bois a l'air et sur son imhibition dans l'eau»- describes Buffon's experiments on drying wood in the air, made by him from 1733 to 1744, and on the absorption of water by wood;
  • in the second part, in two articles: Sur la conservation et le rétablissement des forêts" and " Sur la culture et l'exploitation des forets”, the issue of conservation, restoration and cultivation of forests and their use is considered.

AT " Recherches sur les bois» set out very interesting experiences cultivating dead trees on ship knits by double cutting off the tops of the trunks and tops of young branches of these trees.

Translations into Russian

• Universal and private history natural Comte de Buffon (10 parts). St. Petersburg, -.
  • Comte de Buffon. Translation by acad. S. Rumovsky and I. Lepekhin. Part 1. St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy Sciences, 1801. (3rd edition with additions and corrections). 380 s.
• Peter Blanchard Buffon for youth, or an abridged history of the three kingdoms in nature. (5 parts, Moscow,).

Other publications

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Literature

• Marakuev V. N. Famous naturalists: Linnaeus, Buffon, Pallas and Cuvier. - M., 1874.
• Rainov T. I. Russian academics second half of XVIII in. and Buffon (to the 150th anniversary of the Russian translation of Buffon) // Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - 1939. - No. 10. - S. 126-147.
• Kanaev I.I. Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707-1788). - M .: Nauka, 1966. - 266 p.
• Razumovskaya M.V. Buffon the writer (French naturalists of the 18th century and literature). - St. Petersburg. , 1997. - 156 p. - ISBN 5-288-01812-X.
• Marie-Jean Herault de Sechelles. . / Translation from French. N. M. Karamzina // Pantheon of Foreign Literature. - M., 1798. Book 1. - S. 51-128.

see also

Notes

Links

• Buffon Georges Louis Leclerc de // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. : Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (Retrieved August 7, 2010)
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron (Retrieved August 7, 2010)
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• on the official website of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Excerpt characterizing Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de

Since Natasha was told this morning that Prince Andrei was seriously wounded and was traveling with them, she only in the first minute asked a lot about where? as? is he dangerously injured? and can she see him? But after she was told that she was not allowed to see him, that he was seriously injured, but that his life was not in danger, she obviously did not believe what she was told, but convinced that no matter how much she said, she would be answer the same thing, stopped asking and talking. All the way, with big eyes, which the countess knew so well and whose expression the countess was so afraid of, Natasha sat motionless in the corner of the carriage and was now sitting in the same way on the bench on which she sat down. She was thinking about something, something she was deciding or had already decided in her mind now - the countess knew this, but what it was, she did not know, and this frightened and tormented her.
- Natasha, undress, my dear, lie down on my bed. (Only the countess alone was made a bed on the bed; m me Schoss and both young ladies had to sleep on the floor in the hay.)
“No, mom, I’ll lie down here on the floor,” Natasha said angrily, went to the window and opened it. The groan of the adjutant was heard more distinctly from the open window. She stuck her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her thin shoulders tremble with sobs and beat against the frame. Natasha knew that it was not Prince Andrei who was moaning. She knew that Prince Andrei was lying in the same connection where they were, in another hut across the passage; but this terrible unceasing groan made her sob. The Countess exchanged glances with Sonya.
"Lie down, my dear, lie down, my friend," said the countess, lightly touching Natasha's shoulder with her hand. - Well, go to bed.
“Ah, yes ... I’ll lie down now, now,” said Natasha, hastily undressing and tearing off the strings of her skirts. Throwing off her dress and putting on a jacket, she tucked her legs up, sat down on the bed prepared on the floor and, throwing her short, thin braid over her shoulder, began to weave it. Thin long habitual fingers quickly, deftly took apart, weaved, tied a braid. Natasha's head, with a habitual gesture, turned first to one side, then to the other, but her eyes, feverishly open, fixedly stared straight ahead. When the night costume was over, Natasha quietly sank down on a sheet spread on hay from the edge of the door.
“Natasha, lie down in the middle,” said Sonya.
“No, I’m here,” Natasha said. "Go to bed," she added with annoyance. And she buried her face in the pillow.
The countess, m me Schoss, and Sonya hurriedly undressed and lay down. One lamp was left in the room. But in the yard it was brightening from the fire of Maly Mytishchi, two miles away, and the drunken cries of the people were buzzing in the tavern, which was broken by the Mamonov Cossacks, on the warp, in the street, and the incessant groan of the adjutant was heard all the time.
For a long time Natasha listened to the internal and external sounds that reached her, and did not move. At first she heard her mother's prayer and sighs, the creaking of her bed under her, the familiar whistling snore of m me Schoss, Sonya's quiet breathing. Then the Countess called Natasha. Natasha did not answer her.
“He seems to be sleeping, mother,” Sonya answered quietly. The Countess, after a pause, called again, but no one answered her.
Soon after, Natasha heard her mother's even breathing. Natasha did not move, despite the fact that her small bare foot, knocked out from under the covers, shivered on the bare floor.
As if celebrating the victory over everyone, a cricket screamed in the crack. The rooster crowed far away, relatives responded. In the tavern, the screams died down, only the same stand of the adjutant was heard. Natasha got up.
- Sonya? are you sleeping? Mum? she whispered. No one answered. Natasha slowly and cautiously got up, crossed herself and carefully stepped with her narrow and flexible bare foot on the dirty cold floor. The floorboard creaked. She, quickly moving her feet, ran like a kitten a few steps and took hold of the cold bracket of the door.
It seemed to her that something heavy, evenly striking, was knocking on all the walls of the hut: it was beating her heart, which was dying from fear, from horror and love, bursting.
She opened the door, stepped over the threshold and stepped onto the damp, cold earth canopy. The chill that gripped her refreshed her. She felt the sleeping man with her bare foot, stepped over him and opened the door to the hut where Prince Andrei lay. It was dark in this hut. In the back corner, by the bed, on which something was lying, on a bench stood a tallow candle burnt with a large mushroom.
In the morning, Natasha, when she was told about the wound and the presence of Prince Andrei, decided that she should see him. She didn't know what it was for, but she knew that the date would be painful, and she was even more convinced that it was necessary.
All day she lived only in the hope that at night she would see him. But now that the moment had come, she was terrified of what she would see. How was he mutilated? What was left of him? Was he like that, what was that unceasing groan of the adjutant? Yes, he was. He was in her imagination the personification of that terrible moan. When she saw an indistinct mass in the corner and took his knees raised under the covers by his shoulders, she imagined some kind of terrible body and stopped in horror. But an irresistible force pulled her forward. She cautiously took one step, then another, and found herself in the middle of a small cluttered hut. In the hut, under the images, another person was lying on benches (it was Timokhin), and two more people were lying on the floor (they were a doctor and a valet).
The valet got up and whispered something. Timokhin, suffering from pain in his wounded leg, did not sleep and looked with all his eyes at the strange appearance of a girl in a poor shirt, jacket and eternal cap. The sleepy and frightened words of the valet; "What do you want, why?" - they only made Natasha come up to the one that lay in the corner as soon as possible. As terrifying as this body was, it must have been visible to her. She passed the valet: the burning mushroom of the candle fell off, and she clearly saw Prince Andrei lying on the blanket with outstretched arms, just as she had always seen him.
He was the same as always; but the inflamed complexion of his face, the brilliant eyes fixed enthusiastically on her, and in particular the tender childish neck protruding from the laid back collar of his shirt, gave him a special, innocent, childish look, which, however, she had never seen in Prince Andrei. She walked over to him and, with a quick, lithe, youthful movement, knelt down.
He smiled and extended his hand to her.

For Prince Andrei, seven days have passed since he woke up on dressing station Borodino field. All this time he was almost in constant unconsciousness. The fever and inflammation of the intestines, which were damaged, in the opinion of the doctor who was traveling with the wounded, must have carried him away. But on the seventh day he ate with pleasure a piece of bread with tea, and the doctor noticed that the general fever had decreased. Prince Andrei regained consciousness in the morning. The first night after leaving Moscow was quite warm, and Prince Andrei was left to sleep in a carriage; but in Mytishchi the wounded man himself demanded to be carried out and to be given tea. The pain inflicted on him by being carried to the hut made Prince Andrei moan loudly and lose consciousness again. When they laid him down on the camp bed, he lay with his eyes closed for a long time without moving. Then he opened them and whispered softly: “What about tea?” This memory for the small details of life struck the doctor. He felt his pulse and, to his surprise and displeasure, noticed that the pulse was better. To his displeasure, the doctor noticed this because, from his experience, he was convinced that Prince Andrei could not live, and that if he did not die now, he would only die with great suffering some time later. With Prince Andrei they carried the major of his regiment Timokhin, who had joined them in Moscow, with a red nose, wounded in the leg in the same Battle of Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, the prince's valet, his coachman and two batmen.
Prince Andrei was given tea. He drank greedily, looking ahead at the door with feverish eyes, as if trying to understand and remember something.
- I don't want any more. Timokhin here? - he asked. Timokhin crawled up to him along the bench.
“I'm here, Your Excellency.
- How is the wound?
– My then with? Nothing. Here you are? - Prince Andrei again thought, as if remembering something.
- Could you get a book? - he said.
- Which book?
– Gospel! I do not have.
The doctor promised to get it and began to question the prince about how he felt. Prince Andrei reluctantly but reasonably answered all the doctor's questions and then said that he should have put a roller on him, otherwise it would be awkward and very painful. The doctor and the valet raised the overcoat with which he was covered, and, wincing at the heavy smell of rotten meat spreading from the wound, began to examine this scary place. The doctor was very dissatisfied with something, altered something differently, turned the wounded man over so that he again groaned and, from pain during the turning, again lost consciousness and began to rave. He kept talking about getting this book as soon as possible and putting it there.
- And what does it cost you! he said. “I don’t have it, please take it out, put it in for a minute,” he said in a pitiful voice.
The doctor went out into the hallway to wash his hands.
“Ah, shameless, really,” said the doctor to the valet, who was pouring water on his hands. I just didn't watch it for a minute. After all, you put it right on the wound. It's such a pain that I wonder how he endures.
“We seem to have planted, Lord Jesus Christ,” said the valet.
For the first time, Prince Andrei realized where he was and what had happened to him, and remembered that he had been wounded and that at the moment when the carriage stopped in Mytishchi, he asked to go to the hut. Confused again from pain, he came to his senses another time in the hut, when he was drinking tea, and here again, repeating in his recollection everything that had happened to him, he most vividly imagined that moment at the dressing station when, at the sight of the suffering of a man he did not love , these new thoughts that promised him happiness came to him. And these thoughts, although vague and indefinite, now again took possession of his soul. He remembered that he now had a new happiness and that this happiness had something in common with the Gospel. That's why he asked for the gospel. But the bad position that had been given to his wound, the new turning over again confused his thoughts, and for the third time he woke up to life in the perfect stillness of the night. Everyone was sleeping around him. The cricket was shouting across the entryway, someone was shouting and singing in the street, cockroaches rustled on the table and icons, in autumn a thick fly beat on his headboard and near a tallow candle that was burning with a large mushroom and stood beside him.

(1707-1788)
Buffon for natural science, a figure no less majestic than Linnaeus, but, unlike the latter, the French scientist not only did not recognize divine beginning in the creation of the world, but all his life, all his research devoted to the liberation of science from metaphysics and theology, the development and construction of natural science theories of the origin of the Earth, animals, plants and humans.

Buffon was the eldest of five children of a wealthy Burgundian landowner. Three of his brothers subsequently chose spiritual careers and rose to high positions in the church hierarchy. Georges Louis had a different fate. At the age of 10, the boy was sent to a Jesuit college in Dijon, where the whole family had moved shortly before. He studied rather mediocrely, and the only thing that interested him at that time was mathematics. Bouffon's father wanted his eldest son to become a lawyer, so after graduating from college, the young man studied law for three or four years. However, the passion for mathematics and natural sciences prevailed, and in 1728 Georges Louis moved to Angers, where he began studies in medicine, botany and mathematics. In 1730, due to participation in a duel, he had to leave everything and flee from France. Fortunately, he met the young Duke of Kingston and his mentor, Nathaniel Hickman, and went with them on a long journey. Home Buffon returned only two years later. During this time, his mother died, leaving his son a considerable fortune. Taking advantage of this, Buffon, against the will of his father, settled in Paris. Here he quickly gained fame both in political and scientific circles. Already in 1734, for his mathematical research, especially in the field of probability, he was elected to the Paris Academy of Natural Sciences. But the sphere of his interests was not limited to mathematics. He studied botany, forestry, observed the reproduction of animals, and also translated I. Newton's Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series and S. Gales' Plant Statics.

New stage in life Buffon began in 1739 when he was appointed quartermaster of the royal garden. Buffon He held this post until his death - as much as 50 years, and all of them passed in intensive, hard work. Every spring Buffon he went to the Montbar estate, where he was born, and always spent autumn and winter in Paris. But wherever he was, he always clearly planned his day. got up Buffon from dawn until noon pored over scientific research. Then came the turn of financial activities and business meetings. Over the years, he managed to almost double the territory of the royal garden, publish many scientific reports on the most different topics, write a 36-volume "Natural History" and significantly increase his fortune. Buffon became a member of many scientific academies Petersburg, received the title of count, and his statue, commissioned by Louis XVI, was placed in front of the entrance to the royal Cabinet of Natural History during the lifetime of the scientist. In 1753 Buffon became a member of the French Academy - one of the "40 immortals".

In works Buffon in natural history, the leading idea was the natural origin of the surrounding world. He completely rejected the interference in this process of any otherworldly forces. Science, in his opinion, should not be based on faith, but on laws derived from nature itself.

So, Buffon rejected Newton's idea of ​​divine origin solar system, suggesting his own hypothesis in this regard. Some kind of comet, flying in close proximity to the Sun, tore off part of its mass, from which the planets and their satellites were formed. The entire subsequent history of the Earth was considered by him as a series of epochs regularly succeeding each other: the gradual cooling of the planet and the formation of the earth's crust; condensation of moisture on its surface and the emergence of the ocean, the birth of life in it; the appearance of land (at first in the form of a single continent) and land animals; the final separation of the continents and the formation of their modern appearance; Human Origins.

This concept was one of the first attempts to give not only a natural scientific explanation of the history of the Earth, but also its universal chronology, correlating biological factors with geological, which allowed many historians of science to consider Buffon one of the founders of modern global ecology.

Based on your hypothesis, Buffon tried to experimentally determine the age of the Earth. Having determined how much the cooling time of the balls from different materials depends on the size of their diameters, Buffon came to the conclusion that the Earth has existed for at least 75 thousand years. A little later, after refining my calculations, Buffon received a different value - 3 million years. But he did not even dare to publish this figure - it was preserved only in drafts. The fact is that, according to biblical traditions, the world was created between the VI and IV millennia before the birth of Christ. 75 thousand years and that was too much. The reaction of the church to this date was sharply negative, however, as well as to the whole hypothesis Buffon. There was even an anonymous pamphlet in which the scientist was accused of almost atheism: "While other writers, entertaining us with the history of an individual insect, are able to lift us up in thought to the Creator, sir Buffon, explaining the structure of the world, allows us to almost ignore the Creator.

Buffon developed his own concept of the origin of life on Earth, the modern distribution of animals on our planet and their diversity. He completely rejected the metaphysical ideas of preformism, that is, the preexistence of embryos in the parent organism, and inclined to the point of view of those who argued that a special "nutrient" consisting of organic molecules is responsible for the formation of embryos. Such molecules, having appeared in the process of the development of the Earth, believed further Buffon, began to unite, forming organisms. Many of them disappeared because they were not adapted to the environment. At first, when the planet was still very hot, only very large animals could survive on it. As the Earth cooled, they gradually moved away from the North Pole towards the equator. But in the end natural conditions became so unfavorable for them that they died out. That's why, explained Buffon, the remains of giant animals are found in Europe and North America. At the same time, smaller and smaller animals were formed from organic molecules preserved in the northern regions. Originating in Siberia, they penetrated into Asia, North America, as well as through southern Europe - to Africa. Only in South America they didn’t hit, that’s why the fauna there is so original. The smaller the animals were, the faster they multiplied and the more their varieties arose in the process of migration. Accordingly, varieties of large animals appeared much less.

Buffon one of the first to formulate the biological criterion of a species - only those creatures that, mating, continue their race and retain the features inherent in this species, belong to it. The birth of a sterile, non-breeding animal (such as a mule) means that its parents are of different species. From point of view Buffon, similarity in appearance and the structure of animals cannot be considered a criterion for the species - indeed, the mule is much more like a horse than a curly spaniel is like an English greyhound.

By Buffon, the species is the only systematic category that actually exists in nature. All the rest, families, for example, are invented only for the convenience of those who classify living organisms, trying to squeeze this richest world into rather artificial schemes. And here Buffon quite consistently fought against any manifestations of metaphysics. For Linnaeus, the creator of biological taxonomy, species were ultimately immutable. In his search for a perfect system, he sought to understand and reveal the divine plan of creation. This seems to be the objection Buffon.

Myself Buffon compiled a classification which he considered far simpler, more agreeable, useful, and no more speculative than any other. In it, the dog was given a place behind the horse, because in reality this is what happens - the dog always runs after the horse. From this it is clear that the system Buffon was not based on scientific facts, but on general rather subjective ideas about the significance of certain objects.

AT XVIII-XIX centuries work Buffon, exceptionally important due to their diversity, originality and degree of influence on contemporaries, were published in huge editions in all European countries. Every self-respecting scientist knew them. Many years have passed since then, some ideas Buffon confirmed, others turned out to be wrong, but nevertheless about Buffon remember, his name is not forgotten. They write about him in school textbooks and scientific treatises, and the point here is not in the details, the correctness or incorrectness of his hypotheses, but in the fact that he laid the foundations modern natural science, one of the first to try to create its complete system.

(fr. Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, also just genus. September 7, 1707, Montbard, Burgundy - † April 16, 1788, Paris) - French naturalist, biologist, mathematician, geologist, writer and translator of the XVIII century. Buffon's main work is Natural History in 36 volumes. He expressed the idea of ​​the unity of flora and fauna. Author of the so-called Buffon problem. Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Biography

Buffon was born on September 7, 1707 in the Burgundian town of Montbard as the eldest son of Benjamin-Francois Leclerc, who was chairman of the Salt Chamber (fr. President du grenier a sel) in Montbar. Buffon's mother, Anne-Christine Marlene, was an educated woman and came from a very rich family. Immediately after the birth of her son, she received a large inheritance. In 1714, her uncle, Georges Louis Blazon, who had been a tax collector for the Duke of Savoy, died. After the death of Blazon's widow, Buffon received another great inheritance. Therefore, in 1718, her husband invested money by acquiring the estate of Buffon near Montbar. Soon he also bought the post of parliamentary councilor in Dijon, where the family moved.

1723 young Buffon entered the Jesuit College of Dijon (Collège des Godrans), and, obeying the will of his father, studied law by 1726. From 1728 Buffon entered the University of Angers, where he studied mathematics, medicine and botany. And through a duel, the circumstances of which remain unclear, he was forced to flee from Angers in the same year. Buffon returned to Dijon, where he became friends with the young English Duke of Kingston.

In November 1730, Buffon and the young Duke of Kingston went on an educational journey through France and Italy. He also visited England, where he studied mathematics, physics and botany and translated Newton's Method of Fluxions and Gal's Plant Statics. From 1732 Buffon lived in Paris, where he studied science, mainly physics and mathematics. It was during this period that he developed, among other things, the so-called Buffon problem. Buffon scientific translations and several independent articles of mathematical content made him a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1733. In 1739 he was appointed intendant of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Paris, since then his work has been devoted mainly to the natural sciences. Subsequently, Buffon received the title of earl from the king. In 1753 Buffon became a member of the French Academy. In his opening speech "On Style" (Discours sur le style), Buffon developed his theory of style. Buffon's aphorism from this speech became famous: “Le style est l "homme même" (Style is the man himself). Buffon's speech is still considered the best in the history of the Academy, it has gone through about 60 editions.

Buffon died in Paris on April 16, 1788, after Louis XV granted him the title of count, and Louis XVI, during his lifetime, honored him with a bust placed at the entrance to the royal study of natural history with the inscription: "Majestati naturae par ingenium".

Natural history

Buffon is best known as the author of the Natural History, in 36 volumes, appeared between 1749 and 1789. After Buffon's death, 8 more volumes were produced thanks to the efforts of Buffon's colleague, naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede. The publication contained a whole corpus of the then knowledge in the field of natural sciences. Buffon's attention to internal anatomy makes him one of the forerunners of comparative anatomy. In Buffon's work, the similarity between man and ape is pointed out, from which the possibility of their common origin is derived. In this work, Buffon described a large number of animal species and put forward a position on the unity of flora and fauna.

While Carl Linnaeus, who was born in the same year as Buffon, had the goal of creating the formal side of science, systematics and classification, Buffon tried to oppose a purely methodical description of the nature and appearance of animals with their customs and way of life, so that such way to awaken the interest of educated people in the animal world.

Natural history was supposed to cover all the kingdoms of nature, but in 36 volumes it deals only with quadrupeds and birds, as well as minerals. The publication also includes such works as The Theory of the Earth and The Ages of Nature, probably Buffon's most accurate text.

In his first geological work, The Theory of the Earth (1749), he put forward the hypothesis of the formation of the globe as a fragment torn off from the Sun as a result of a comet falling on it. Our planet, being part of the Sun, gradually cools to the very center. Buffon exaggerated the significance of the geological activity of the sea and underestimated the volcanic phenomena and tectonic movements in the history of the Earth. He owns the hypothesis of the development of the globe and its surface. Part of Buffon's work is devoted to mineralogy.

Buffon's most important collaborator in the section on quadrupeds was Louis Jean-Marie Daubanton, who dealt with anatomical descriptions. The bird volumes were co-written with Gabriel Beckson and Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnino de Manoncourt.

Buffon paid great attention illustrations that were made for volumes on quadrupeds by Jacques de SEV and for volumes on birds by François-Nicolas Martin. The publication has a total of over 2,000 illustrations.

Natural History has had big success, almost on a par with the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d "Alembert. The first two volumes, The Theory of the Earth and The Natural History of Man, were reprinted three times in six weeks. The work was translated into English, then German (1750-1754), Dutch (1775), Spanish (1785-1791) Since 1799, many abridged editions have appeared, in the 19th century, especially many editions were published for children.

However, there were critics of this work, among whom are such names as Jean d "Alembert, Nicolas de Condorcet, Jean-Francois La Arp, Rene-Antoine de Réaumur, Voltaire. Buffon was abandoned by too emphatic and high-flown style, which, according to critics did not go to scientific work and especially excessive anthropomorphism..

Natural History is divided into 36 volumes:

• three volumes in 1749: "On the method of studying natural history" (De la manière d "étudier l" histoire naturelle), as well as "Earth Theory" (Théorie de la Terre), « General history animals" (Histoire generale des animaux) and "The General History of Man" (Histoire naturelle de l "homme)
• 12 volumes on quadrupeds (1753-1767)
• 9 volumes on birds (1770-1783)
• 5 volumes on minerals (1783-1788), the last volume contains a Treatise on Magnet (Traite de l "aimant), the last work of Buffon;
• 7 volumes of appendices (1774-1789), which includes the Ages of Nature (Epoques de la nature") (since 1778).

Buffon's works were often republished, usually under the title "Natural History" (fr. Histoire naturelle generale et particulière):

• First edition in 36 volumes, Paris, 1749-89;
• Edition Lamouret and Demaris, in 40 volumes, 1824-32;
• Flourens edition in 12 volumes, Paris, 1802.

Relations with the Church

For his theories about the formation of the universe and the evolution of the Earth and the evolution of life, Buffon narrowly escaped reprisals from the Catholic Church. Buffon pretended not to understand the reproaches and assured of his unshakable faith, so at the end of April 1781, the Sorbonne stopped her persecution, content with Buffon's vague promise to revise her theories. Buffon was very cautious in his relations with the church, because he knew that he could lose a lot, so he preferred concessions, which caused dissatisfaction in particular with Voltaire, who highly appreciated Buffon, but also remained critical of him.

In the end, Buffon maintained a wary and distrustful attitude towards the church, but avoided direct clashes, believing that an open display of views would be a tactical error.

Significance of Buffon's works

From a scientific point of view, the works of Buffon are today rather historical meaning, at the same time they are a model of high style. It is no coincidence that his works appeared in print in the most prestigious French publishing series, the Pleiades Library, which usually publishes the works of the classics of literature.

His philosophical attempts to explain the phenomena of nature during his lifetime experienced sharp criticism, in particular from the pen of Condillac and Voltaire. However special combination scientificity with poetry and still attracts readers to Buffon's refinement. Such, for example, are written in a brilliant style "Theory of the Earth" and "Ages of Nature".

Observation of the life of animals was rarely directly collected by Buffon himself, but it was he who was able to introduce these facts into scientific circulation and combine them into a certain system. Of scientific importance are also the systematic works of Daubanton, a colleague of Buffon, who was his co-author in the Natural History of Mammals.

In contrast to Carl Linnaeus, who defended in his classification the idea of ​​the constancy of species, Buffon expressed progressive ideas about the variability of species under the influence of environmental conditions (climate, nutrition, etc.).

In the field of geology, Buffon systematized the factual material known at that time and developed a number of theoretical questions about the development of the globe and its surface.

An important merit of Buffon is that he put an end to the confusion of positive theology with natural science. Thanks to the writings of Buffon, free views, despite the strong opposition of Haller, Bonnet and some German scientists, made their way in all directions, and his observations gave impetus to deeper scientific research.

Labor

• Natural History / Histoire naturelle, generale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy, consisting of the following parts:
  • De la manière d "étudier l" histoire naturelle, suivi de la Théorie de la Terre 1749;
  • Histoire generale des animaux 1749;
  • Histoire naturelle de l "homme 1749;
  • Les quadrupedes, 1753-1767;
  • Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, 1770-1783;
  • Histoire naturelle des minéraux, 1783-1788, contenant le Traité de l "aimant et de ses usages;
  • Les supplements, 1774-1789, dont les Époques de la nature, à partir de 1778.
• It's about style Discours sur le style, speech delivered at the French Academy on August 25, 1753
• Memoirs in mathematics and physics / Mémoires de mathématique et de physique, tirés des registres de l "Académie Royale des Sciences:
  • De la cause de l "excentricite des couches ligneuses qu "on apperçoit quand on coupe horizontalement le Tronc d" un Arbre; de l "inégalité d" épaisseur, & du différent nombre de ces couches, tant dans le bois formé que dans l "aubier, 1737
  • Des différents effets que produisent sur les Végétaux, les grandes gelées d "Hiver & les petites gelées du Printemp, 1737.
  • Moyen facile d "augmenter la solidite, la force et la duree du bois, 1 738
  • Mémoire sur la conservation et le rétablissement des forests, 1739.
  • 1 740
  • Experiences sur la force du bois, 1741.
  • Dissertation sur les couleurs accidentelles 1743
  • Memoire sur la culture des forests, 1 745
  • Reflexions sur la loi de l "attraction, 1745
  • Addition au memoire qui a pour titre: Reflexions sur la Loi de l "Attraction, 1 745.
  • Seconde Addition au Mémoire qui a pour titre: Reflexions sur la Loi de l "Attraction, 1745
  • Invention des miroirs ardens, pour brusler à une grande distance, 1747
  • Découverte de la liqueur seminale dans les femelles vivipares et du reservoir qui la contient, 1748
  • Nouvelle invention de miroirs ardens, 1748.
• Translations
  • Stephan Hales, La Statique des vegetaux, 1 735
  • Isaac Newton, La Méthode des fluxions et des suites infinies, 1740

Bibliography

• TV film
  • Philippe Tourancheau, Buffon, le penseur de la nature, 2007.
• Latest editions of Buffon
  • Complete Works / Œuvres complètes:
    • Volume 1. Histoire naturelle, generale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy. Tome I (1749). Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2007. 1376 p., Rel. ISBN 978-2-7453-1601-1 (today a comprehensive edition by Bufonne, in the process of publication, the fifth volume will be published in 2011)
    • Volume 2. Histoire naturelle, generale et particulière avec la participation du Cabinet du Roy. Volume II. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt, avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2008. ISBN 978-2-7453-1729-2
    • Volume 3. Histoire naturelle, generale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy. Texte établi, introduit et annoté par Stéphane Schmitt avec la collaboration de Cédric Crémière. Tome III (1749), Paris: Honoré Champion, 2009. 1 vol., 776 p., Relié, 14 x 22 cm. ISBN 978-2-7453-1730-8
  • Œuvres préface de Michel Delon, choix des textes, introduction et notes de Stéphane Schmitt, éditions Gallimard, La Pléiade, in 2007 (Edition in the Pleiades Library series, in the comments Special attention attributed to the literary merit of Buffon)
  • Œuvres philosophiques texte établi et présenté par Jean Piveteau, PUF, 1954 (Commentary edition of the Paris University Press)
  • Histoire naturelle textes choisis et commentés par Jean Varloot, Gallimard, Folio Classiques, 1984 (abridged version in pocket format with commentary)
• Biographies
  • Pierre Gascar, Buffon, Paris, Gallimard, 1983, 267 p. (ISBN 2-07-070007-0)
  • Ouvrage collectif, Buffon: 1788-1988, introduction de Jean Dorst avec des textes de Paul-Marie Grinevald, Yves Laissus, ** Bernard Rignault, Serge Benoît, et al., Imprimerie nationale, Paris, 1988: 293 p. (ISBN 2-11-080933-7)
  • Jacques Roger, Buffon: un philosophe au Jardin du Roi, Paris, Fayard, 1989, 645 p. (ISBN 2-213-02265-8)
  • Yann Gaillard, Buffon, biographie imaginaire, Hermann, 1977;
  • Yves Laissus, Buffon, la nature en majesté, Découvertes Gallimard, 2007;
  • Des manuscrits de Buffon, avec des facsimile de Buffon et de ses collaborators de Pierre Flourens, Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon, Garnier, 1860;
  • Correspondance, publiée par son arrière petit-neveu Henri Nadault de Buffon, 1860;
  • Félix Vicq d "Azyr, Nicolas de Condorcet, Georges Cuvier ont écrit son Éloge; Flourens a donné L" Histoire de sa vie et de ses ouvrages;
  • Henri Nadault de Buffon, Buffon, sa famille et ses collaborators, 1863;
• critical literature
  • Michel Foucault, Les Mots et les choses, vol. I, II, IV, Paris, Gallimard, 1966, p. 54-55.

et I, V ("Classer"), p. 137-176

• • Thierry Hoquet, Buffon illustré: les gravures de l "Histoire naturelle (1749-1767), Paris, Muséum national d" Histoire naturelle, 2007, 816 p. (ISBN 978-2-85653-601-8)
  • Les Époques de la nature, introduction et commentaires de Jacques Roger, éditions du Muséum National d "Histoire Naturelle (1984).

Georges-Louis Buffon(1707 - 1788) French naturalist, wildlife taxonomist and popularizer of science. Born September 7, 1707 in Montbart (Burgundy). He studied law, first at the Jesuit College in Dijon, then at the University of Dijon. Later he studied at medical faculty University of Angers. He traveled a lot in France and Italy, sometimes in the company of the English Duke of Kingston and his mentor N. Hickman. The latter aroused Buffon's interest in natural science. Buffon's main work - General and private natural history; 36 of its volumes were published during the lifetime of the scientist (the first of them began to appear in 1749), and 8 were published posthumously. The work is opened by intensively discussing at that time earth evolution theory. The earth, according to Buffon, was formed from that part of the sun that separated from it after the collision of the sun with a comet. First, a gaseous cloud condensed, then continents began to form, a process that continues to this day.

The second volume, devoted to man, discusses in detail the results of observations indicating that the variety of customs, beliefs, physical characteristics of people and the color of their skin is due primarily to the influence of "climate". At the same time, “climate” was understood not only as conditions determined by geographical latitude given area and height above sea level, but also its openness to winds, proximity to large bodies of water, not to mention average temperature, precipitation and humidity. The nature of the entire publication undertaken by Buffon is most fully reflected in the volumes devoted to world of animals and plants. The scientist not only described many animals and plants, but also expressed ideas about species variability(as opposed to K. Linnaeus), about unity of flora and fauna. This work brought Buffon to the forefront of Charles Darwin's predecessors. According to Buffon, organisms that have common ancestors undergo long-term changes under the influence of the environment and become less and less similar to each other.

Buffon's book was published in 1778 About the epochs of nature covering a wide range of problems - from cosmology and anthropology to world history. Buffon's preoccupation with the form of presentation of scientific questions is reflected in his work Reasoning about style (Discours sur le style, 1753), timed to coincide with his election to the French Academy.

During Buffon's lifetime, scholars treated him with respect, and the general public read his writings. Later, preference began to be given to other authors, but Buffon's authority among lovers of natural history remained unquestioned for a long time.

Buffon worked on his composition alone and with assistants for almost half a century, strictly observing the strictest daily routine. It was especially difficult to get up at dawn: Buffon liked to sleep. Servant Joseph, for a modest additional reward, was charged with the duty to wake his master, despite scolding and desperate resistance. But as soon as Buffon got up after a night's sleep, everything went on according to once and for all routine. “Genius” (and Buffon did not doubt his genius) without order loses three-quarters of his strength,” Buffon used to say.

From a scientific point of view, Buffon's writings are of little value today, while they are still a model of oratory, sometimes grandiloquent style. His philosophical attempts to explain the phenomena of nature found a sharp opponent already in Condillac and could only attract to themselves as a poetic representation of nature; such, for example, is the theory of the Earth (“the epoch of nature”) written in the most brilliant style. Observations on the life of animals are rarely collected by him, but cleverly processed, although not from a physiological point of view. Of scientific importance are also the systematic works of Daubanton, Buffon's comrade, who took a serious part in Buffon's Natural History of Mammals.

In contrast to K. Linnaeus, who defended the idea of ​​the constancy of species in his classification, Buffon expressed progressive ideas about the variability of species under the influence of environmental conditions (climate, nutrition, etc.). In the field of geology, Buffon systematized the factual material known at that time and developed a number of theoretical questions about the development of the globe and its surface.

French naturalist, systematist of wildlife and popularizer of science.

In 1739-1788 he was director of the Botanical Garden in Paris.

Main labor Georges Louis Buffon: General and private natural history / Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière. 36 its volumes were published during the life of a scientist, and 8 came out posthumously. The enormous self-discipline that J.-L. Buffon, in order to complete this work, allowed Herault de Sechelle in his essay: Visit to Buffon / Herault de Visite a Buffon, published in 1785, to attribute to the scientist the expression: “Genius is patience.”

"His understanding of natural history Buffon stated in the very first lines of the first volume: “Natural history, taken in its entirety, embraces everything that is found in the Universe. This is a monstrous multitude of tetrapods, birds, fish, insects, plants, minerals, etc. represents for the curiosity of the human mind a grandiose performance, the ensemble of which is so great that it seems inexhaustible in its details. On his essay, Buffon alone and with assistants worked almost half a century, strictly observing the strictest daily routine. It was especially difficult to get up at dawn: Buffon liked to sleep. Servant Joseph, for a modest additional reward, was charged with the duty to wake his master, despite scolding and desperate resistance. Buffon once confessed to his secretary Chevalier Odu: “Yes, I am indebted to poor Joseph for ten or twelve volumes of my writings.” But as soon as Buffon got up after a night's sleep, everything went on according to once and for all routine. “Genius” (and Buffon did not doubt his genius) without order loses three-quarters of his strength,” Buffon used to say. He spent the entire first half of the day until dinner desk in his office, the threshold of which, as a sign of admiration for the literary gift of Buffon, once kissed Jean Jacques Rousseau. It was strictly forbidden for anyone to disturb the owner of the office during class hours.