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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RAY-RHU |
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REAUMUR, RENE ANTOINE FERCHAULT DE (1683-1757) , French man of science, was born on the 28th of February 1683 at La Rochelle and received his early education there. He was taught philosophy in the Jesuits' college at Poitiers, and in 1699 went to Bourges to study civil law and mathematics under the charge of an uncle, canon of La Sainte-Chapelle. In 1703 he came to Paris, where he continued the study of mathematics and physics, and in 1708, at the early age of twenty-four, was elected a member of the Academic des Sciences. From this time onwards for nearly half a century hardly a year passed in which the Memoires de l'Academie did not contain at least one paper by Reaumur. At first his attention was occupied by mathematical studies, especially in geometry. In 1710 he was appointed to the charge of a great
practical
establishment
commander
great
' The Schoolmen's distinction of ratio cognoscendi (a reason for acknowledging a fact) and ratio essendi (a reason for the existence of this fact), Pliny of the 18th century. He loved retirement and lived much at his country residences, at one of which, La Bermondiere (Maine), he met with a fall from horseback, the effects of which proved fatal on the 17th of October 1757. He bequeathed his manuscripts, which filled 138 portfolios, and his natural history collections to the Academie des Sciences. Reaumur's scientific papers deal with nearly all branches of science; his first, in 1708, was on a general problem in geometry; his last, in 1756, on the forms of birds' nests. He proved experimentally the fact that the strength of a rope is less than the sum of the strengths of its separate strands. He examined and reported on the auriferous rivers, the turquoise
sulphur
Reaumur wrote much on natural history. Early in life he described the locomotor system of the Echinodermata, and showed that the supposed vulgar error of Crustaceans replacing their lost limbs was an actual fact. In 1710 he wrote a paper on the possibility of spiders being used to produce silk, which was so celebrated at the time that the Chinese emperor Kang-he caused a translation of it to be made. He treated also of botanical and agricultural matters, and devised processes for preserving birds and eggs. He elaborated a system of artificial incubation, and made important observations on the digestion of carnivorous and graminivorous birds. His greatest work
appearance , habits and locality of all the known insects except the beetles, and is a marvel of patient and accurate observation. Among other important facts stated in this work
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