PICTET DE LA RIVE, FRANCOIS JULES (18091872)

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 586 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PER-PIG

PICTET DE LA RIVE, FRANCOIS JULES (18091872) , Swiss zoologist and palaeontologist, was born in Geneva on the 27th of September 1809. He graduated B. es Sc. at Geneva in 1829, and pursued his studies for a short time at Paris, where under the influence of Cuvier, de Blainville and others, he worked at natural history and comparative anatomy. On his return to Geneva in 1830 he assisted A. P. de Candolle by giving demonstrations in comparative anatomy. Five years later, when de Candolle retired, Pictet was appointed professor of

zoology

ZOOLOGY (from Gr. Nov, a living thing, and ?byos, theory)

and comparative anatomy. In 1846 his duties were restricted to certain branches of

zoology

ZOOLOGY (from Gr. Nov, a living thing, and ?byos, theory)

, including geology and palaeontology, and these he continued to teach until 1859, when he retired to devote his energies to the museum of natural history and to

special

SPECIAL

palaeontological

work

WORK

. He was

rector

RECTOR (Lat. for " ruler," " guide," &c., from regere, "
rule
- RULE
")

of the

academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

from 1847 to 1850, and again from 1866 to 1868. He was for many years a member of the Representative Council of Geneva, and in 1862 President of the Constituent Assembly. His earlier published

work

WORK

related chiefly to entomology, and included Recherches pour servir d l'histoire et d l'anatomie des Phryganides (1834) and two parts of Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere des insectes Neuropteres (18421845). Feeling the want of. a hand-book, he prepared his Traite elementaire de paleontologie (4 vols. 18441846). In the first edition Pictet, while adopting the hypothesis of successive creations of species, admitted that some may have originated through the modification of pre-existing forms. In his second edition (18531857) he enters further into the probable transformation of some species, and discusses the independence of certain faunas, which did not appear to have originated from the types which locally preceded them. He now directed his attention to the fossils of his native country, more especially to those of the Cretaceous and Jurassicstrata, and in 1854 he commenced the publication of his

great

GREAT

work, Materiaux pour la paleontologie suisse, a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of quarto memoirs, of which six were published (1854-1873). In this work Pictet was aided by E

Renevier

RENEVIER, EUGENE (1831– )

, G. Campiche, P. de Loriol and others, Pictet also brought out Melanges paleontologiques (1863-1868). He died at Geneva on the 15th of March 1872.
Obituary by W. S. Dallas, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (1873), vol. xxix.

End of Article: PICTET DE LA RIVE, FRANCOIS JULES (18091872)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/PER_PIG/PICTET_DE_LA_RIVE_FRANCOIS_JUL.html">
PICTET DE LA RIVE, FRANCOIS JULES (18091872)
</a>

(Previous)
PICROTOXIN

(Next)
PICTON, SIR

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email