Louis Feuillée

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Louis Éconches Feuillée
Feuillée, pointing at a map of Martinique.
Born1660
Mane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
Died18 April 1732
Marseilles
NationalityFrance French
Scientific career
FieldsBotany, astronomy, geography
Author abbrev. (botany)Feuillée

Louis Éconches Feuillée (sometimes spelled Feuillet) (1660,

Minims
, explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist.

Biography

Feuillée was educated at the Minim convent of Mane, in Provence. He was born in Mane, near Forcalquier, in 1660. He was taught astronomy and cartography by Jean Mathieu de Chazelles, and Charles Plumier, who had described some 6,000 species of plants during a voyage to the Caribbean, taught him botany.

He attracted the attention of members of the

Marseilles on 5 February 1703 and arrived at Martinique
on 11 April.

In September of the following year he began a cruise along the northern coast of South America, making observations at numerous ports. In the Antilles, he collected new species of

Louis XIV of France
, and armed with letters from the ministry, set sail from Marseilles on 14 December 1707.

In 1707, he voyaged to what is now Argentina, rounded Cape Horn at the end of 1708 after a tempestuous voyage, and arrived at Concepción, Chile on 20 January 1708. He remained in that city for a month, conducting astronomic, botanical, and zoological surveys and at the end of February traveled to Valparaíso. He then traveled to Peru and returned to France in August 1711, where he published a complete inventory of his observations in three volumes (1714–1725). Louis XIV granted him a pension and built an observatory for him at the convent of the Minims in Marseilles.

The Spanish colonies of Central and South America seemed to have received many visits by French scientists during this period. These men served both as unofficial "scientific advisors" –but also as spies. Between 1735 and 1744, scientists like Louis Godin, Charles Marie de La Condamine, and Pierre Bouguer would take part in similar expeditions.

He died at

Marseilles
.

South American discoveries

During this South American voyage, he had described and mapped the islands of

Sebald Islands (Falkland Islands), the bay of Concepción, Coquimbo, Arica, Lima, the roads of Callao, and the town of Pisco. He sketched panoramic views of many South American places. He also provided a description of Fragaria chiloensis, the Concepción strawberry: "Several fruits, like pears, apples, strawberries, etc. were ripe. For dessert we were served some strawberries of a marvellous taste, whose size equalled that of our largest nuts. Their color is a pale white. They are prepared in the same manner as we fix them in Europe, and, although they have neither the color nor the taste of ours, they do not lack excellence."[1] Feuillée did not include a specimen of this strawberry in the botanical collection he returned to Brest. Four months after Feuillée returned to France, Louis XIV dispatched the engineer Amédée-François Frézier to South America to report on Spanish fortifications there. Frézier became the first to bring back specimens of Fragaria chiloensis of this New World fruit to the Old World
. Frézier also disagreed with Feuillée in regard to the latter's measurement of the latitudes and longitudes of the South American coast and of the principal ports of Chile and Peru. Frézier actually pointed out several mistakes in Feuillée's Relation, which led to a bitter feud between the two travelers.

Upon his departure, with a

alstromeria, the papaya, the cherimoya, and the solanum
.

He discovered, one century before Alexander von Humboldt, the existence of the large circular current skirting the Chilean and Peruvian coasts (now called the Humboldt Current).

He also noted the 6-month-delayed order of the seasons south of the Equator, as compared with their sequence in the Northern Hemisphere.

Other voyages

In 1724, on his fourth and last voyage, he travelled to the

Hierro
.

Feuillée's monster

Feuillée's monster

Feuillée scientifically described many South American plants for the first time. He also described a monster born of a ewe that he was permitted to see in Buenos Aires:[1]

The monster which is shown in the figure appeared in Buenos Aires on 26 August. The contrast of three resemblances which it had, that of a child, a horse, and a calf, surprised all who saw it. I asked the person who showed it to me if I could examine it in order to describe it faithfully, but he never allowed me to do this. I examined it from quite close and drew its principal traits without his noticing. As soon as I returned to my room, having all the information about the monster vividly in my memory, it furnished what was missing from the drawing. I completed it and represented it in its natural color.

Plants and locations named after Feuillée

Works by Feuillée

  • Journal des observations physiques, mathématiques, et botaniques (Paris, 1714).
  • Suite du Journal (Paris, 1725).
The standard author abbreviation Feuillée is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[3]

Gallery

See also

  • List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References

  1. ^ "Description of a Monster Born of a Ewe (Translation of August 1708 Work)". NOAA Central Library. 11 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Indofevillea Chatterjee | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  3. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Feuillée.

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Louis Feuillet". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

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