Paul Gervais

For the Canadian parliamentarian see Paul Mullins Gervais
For the American writer see Paul Gervais

Paul Gervais
Paul Gervais
Born	26 September 1816 Paris
Died	10 February 1879
Nationality	French
Scientific career
Fields	palaeontology entomology
Institutions	Sorbonne Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle

Paul Gervais full name François Louis Paul Gervaise (26 September 1816 - 10 February 1879) was a French palaeontologist and entomologist.

Biography

Gervais was born in Paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medicine, and in 1835 he began palaeontological research as assistant in the laboratory of comparative anatomy at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. In 1841 he obtained the chair of zoology and comparative anatomy at the Faculty of Sciences in Montpellier, of which he was in 1856 appointed dean. In 1848-1852 appeared his important work Zoologie et paléontologie françaises, supplementary to the palaeontological publications of Georges Cuvier and Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville; of this a second and greatly improved edition was issued in 1859. In 1865 he accepted the professorship of zoology at the Sorbonne, vacant through the death of Louis Pierre Gratiolet; this post he left in 1868 for the chair of comparative anatomy at the Paris museum of natural history, the anatomical collections of which were greatly enriched by his exertions. He died in Paris on the 10th of February 1879.

Works

Apart from the works mentioned previously he also wrote:

• with Charles Athanase Walckenaer Histoire naturelle des insectes (4 vols., 1836-1847)
• Zoologie et paléontologie françaises (1848-1852)
• Histoire naturelle des Mammifères (1853)
• Zoologie médicale (1859), mit Pierre-Joseph van Beneden
• Recherches sur l'ancienneté de l'homme et la période quaternaire (1867)
• Zoologie et Paléontologie générales (1867)
• Ostéographie des cétacés vivants et fossiles (1869),with Pierre-Joseph van Beneden[1]

References

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gervais, Paul". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 907.