This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Charles Marie de La Condamine is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
Charles Marie de La Condamine (January 28, 1701 - February 4, 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician.
La Condamine was born in Paris. He was trained for the military profession, but turned his attention to science and geographical exploration. Before his journey to South America, he took part in a scientific expedition in the Levant in 1731.
Contents |
South America exploration
La Condamine became a member of the expedition that was sent to Peru in 1735 to determine the length of a degree of the meridian in the neighborhood of the equator; this work laid the basis for the determination of the length of the meter. The group was led by Louis Godin and included Pierre Bouguer, Antonio de Ulloa, and Jorge Juan y Santacilia. His associations with his principals were unhappy; the expedition was beset by many difficulties, and finally La Condamine split from the rest and made his way to Quito, Ecuador separately, discovering rubber in the process. Insufficient funds prevented La Condamine to return to France directly when he reached Quito. Thus he decided to take the trip down the Amazon, ultimately reaching Cayenne. His was the first scientific exploration of the Amazon. He returned to Paris in 1744 and published the results of his measurements and travels with a map of the Amazon in Mém. de l'Académie des Sciences, 1745 (English translation 1745-1747). This included the first descriptions by a European of the Casiquiare canal and the curare arrow poison prepared by the Amerindians. He also noted the correct use of quinine to fight malaria. The journal of his ten-year long voyage to South America was published in Paris in 1751. However, much of his observations of the Andean region were kept secret by the Spanish, as La Condamine had to submit its reports to the Spanish viceroy before he could leave Quito for his Amazon trip in 1744. These Noticias Secretas were eventually published in 1826.
Later years
On a visit to Rome La Condamine made careful measurements of the ancient buildings with a view to a precise determination of the length of the Roman foot. He also wrote in favour of inoculation, and on various other subjects, mainly connected with his work in South America. In 1760 he was nominated to the Academie Francaise. He died in Paris after a hernia operation.
Works
South America
- Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi à l'équateur (Paris 1751, Supplement 1752)
- Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur del'Amérique méridionale (Paris 1759)
- “Mémoire sur quelques anciens monumens du Perou [sic], du tems des Incas”, in: Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres II (1746), Berlin 1748, S. 435-456 (hier als PDF).
Others
- La figure de la terre déterminée (Paris 1749)
- Mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien dans l'hémisphère australe (Paris 1751)
- Histoire de l'inoculation de la petite vérole (Amsterdam 1773)
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Victor Wolfgang von Hagen: South America called them; explorations of the great naturalists: La Condamine, Humboldt, Darwin, Spruce. New York: Knopf, 1945
- Robert Whitaker: The Mapmaker's Wife. London: Doubleday, 2004. (The full story of the expedition to South America, drawn from the original documents.)
External links
- French Academy of Sciences biography
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Charles Marie de La Condamine", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
| Preceded by Louis-Gui de Guérapin de Vauréal |
Seat 23 Académie française 1760-1774 |
Succeeded by Jacques Delille |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 23 October 2008, at 21:31.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Charles Marie de La Condamine".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.