DESMAREST, NICOLAS (1725-1815)

This article appears in Volume V08, Page 97 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DEM-DIO

DESMAREST, NICOLAS (1725-1815) , French geologist, was born at Soulaines, in the department of

Aube

AUBE

, on the 16th of September 1725. Of humble parentage, he was educated at the college of the Oratorians of

Troyes

TROYES

and Paris. Taking full advantage of the instruction he received, he was able to support himself by teaching, and to continue his studies independently. Buff on's Theory of the Earth interested him, and in 1753 he successfully competed for a prize by writing an

essay

ESSAY, ESSAYIST (Fr. essai, Late Lat. exagium, a weighing or balance; exigere, to examine; the term in general meaning any trial or effort)

on the ancient connexion between England and France. This attracted much attention, and ultimately led to his being employed in studying and

reporting

REPORTING

on manufactures in different countries, and in 1788 to his appointment as inspector-general of the manufactures of France. He utilized his journeys, travelling on foot, so as to add to his knowledge of the earth's structure. In 1763 he made observations in Auvergne, recognizing that the prismatic basalts were old lava streams, comparing them with the columns of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and referring them to the operations of

extinct

EXTINCT

volcanoes. It was not, however, until 1974 that he published an

essay

ESSAY, ESSAYIST (Fr. essai, Late Lat. exagium, a weighing or balance; exigere, to examine; the term in general meaning any trial or effort)

on the subject, accompanied by a

geological

GEOLOGICAL

map, having meanwhile on several occasions revisited the

district

DISTRICT

. He then pointed out the succession of volcanic outbursts and the changes the rocks had undergone through weathering and erosion. As remarked by Sir A.

Geikie

, the

doctrine

DOCTRINE

of the origin of valleys by the erosive action of the streams which flow through them was first clearly taught by Desmarest. An enlarged and improved edition of his map of the volcanic region of Auvergne was published after his death, in 1823, by his son ANSELME GAETAN DESMAREST (1784-1838), who was distinguished as a zoologist, and author of memoirs on

recent

RECENT

and fossil crustacea. He died in Paris on the 20th of September 1815.
See The Founders of Geology, by Sir A.

Geikie

(1897), pp. 48-78.
(H. B. Wo.)

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