Description
Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville comte de Lacépède was a French naturalist. He was born on 26th December 1756 at Agen in Guienne and it was a study of Buffon that first ignited his interest in nature.

His two treatises, Essai sur l’électricité (1781) and Physique générale et particulière (1782-1784) gained him the friendship of Buffon who secured Lacépède the position of subdemonstrator in the Jardin du Roi. Lacépède continued Buffon’s Histoire naturelle under the titles Histoire des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents (2. vols, 1788 - 1789) and Histoire naturelle des reptiles (1789).

After the Revolution Lacépède became a member of the legislative assembly, but he was forced to leave Paris when his views endangered his life during the Reign of Terror.

The Jardin du Roi was reorganized as the Jardin des Plantes and Lacépède was appointed to the chair for the study of reptiles and fish. From this period until his death, however, his political activities prevented him from making any further contribution of importance to science. He held several state offices and was created a peer of France at the Restoration in 1819.

He died on 6th October 1825.
17/07/2003
Created by: Tudor. Rebecca on 17/07/2003