DUMéRIL, ANDRé-MARIE-CONSTANT

(b. Amiens, France, I January 1774; d. Paris, France,14 August 1860)

zoology, herpetology, entomology.

As a child Duméril showed a lively interest in zoology, collecting insects and improvising lectures for his schoolmates. He wished to become a physician, but as the eighth child of a poor minor official he could not immediately satisfy this desire. Finally, in 1795, with state support, he began his medical studies in Paris, where he became friendly with the enthusiastic young men who were soon to fill the newly reorganized Academie des Sciences: M.-F.-X. Bichat, G. Dupuytren, A. Richerand, É. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, Alexandre Brongniart, A.-P. de Candolle, G. Cuvier, and J.-B. Biot.

Duméril’s skill in preparing anatomical demonstrations, the clarity of his exposition, and his enthusiasm brought him rapid success. Named prosecteur in 1795 and then chief assistant in practical anatomy in 1799, he became professor of medicine in 1801 and retained this post until 1857. From 1812 to 1852 he was médecin des hôpitaux, and also in 1812 he inherited the extensive practice of his father-in-law, who was a well-known physician. Methodical and tireless, Duméril combined the careers of physician and naturalist; his rise in the latter area, however, was somewhat slower, but was supported by Cuvier. The two had a powerful common bond —Protestantism. Cuvier, who already had many responsibilities and lacked expert knowledge of human anatomy, arranged for Duméril to become his substitute in 1800. Duméril then became editor of the first two volumes of Cuvier’s Legons danatomic comparée (1800). In 1803, probably at Cuvier’s suggestion, Lacépède, overburdened with official duties, chose Duméril as his substitute in the chair of zoology specializing in reptiles and fishes at the Muséum d’Histoirc Naturelle. To fulfill his responsibilities as a professor, Duméril was obliged to compensate quickly for his scanty knowledge of these subjects. Again with the help of Cuvier, Duméril obtained a contract to write Traité éléliment aire d’histoire naturelle (1804, 1807). the official manual for the lycées, to which he added, for university students, Zoologie analytique… (1806). In both works his methodical approach harmonized well with his gifts as a popularizer.

Cuvier, whose opinions had become very orthodox-following Napoleon’s restoration of the official recognition of religion to his own advantage (1804)—was certainly less than enthusiastic when Duméril advocated the verebral theory of the cranium around 1803 and again in 1805 and indicated in 1812 that he viewed the cyclostomes (for example, the lamprey) as intermediary between the invertebrates and the vertebrates. In a letter to Agassiz, Duméril asserted that despite appearances, he stood opposed to Cuvier in this matter.

Duméril did not become titular professor until 1825, following the death of Lacépède. In 1832 Duméril engaged as aide-naiuraliste Gabriel Bibron, who shared his ardent interest in natural science. They undertook the publication of the nine-volume Erpétohgie générate, which had reached its sixth volume at the time of Bibron’s premature death in 1848. Duméril then called upon his son. Auguste, to assist him in completing the work.

After studying medicine, Auguste Duméril (1812-1870) entered P. Flourens’s laboratory of comparative physiology at the Muséum around 1840. More original and less inclined to classification than his father, Auguste was especially interested in the development of the human fetus, in odors, glandular secretions, and in the chemical substances that alter the internal temperature of higher vertebrates. He conducted an experiment in which he revived a batrachian that he had previously frozen. At the Muséum, Constant Duméril had created the first ménagerie of reptiles (vivarium). There, in 1865, Auguste observed the transformation of an axolotl (larval salamander) into an ambystoma (a terrestrial salamander); this transformation proved that under certain circumstances a living creature can breed in its larval stage. Duméril’s observation gave rise to the notion of neoteny, which is of great importance in general biology.

Still, after 1848, Auguste Duméril’s essential scientific activity consisted in helping his father, whom he succeeded as professor at the Muséum in 1857. Following his father’s death in 1860. he continued the latter’s work, as well as that of Cuvier on the fishes (for example, in 1870 he gave a description of the dipneusts). Volumes VII and IX of the Erpétohgie générale are largely his work. Altogether, the nine volumes describe 120 species of chelonians, 445 of saurians, 528 of ophidians, and 218 of batrachians, or a total of 1,311 species-more than twice the number contained in Blasius Merrem’s classic Versuch vines Systems tier Am-phibien (1820). The necessary sequel to the major works of Lamarck and Latreille on the invertebrates and of Cuvier on the fishes, the Erpétologie générale constitutes a crucial stage in the development of descriptive and systematic zoology.

Duméril produced an enormous body of work in entomology, ranging from hundreds of articles for the Dictionnaire des sciences natturelles (1816-1830, 1840), published by Levrault under Cuvier’s direction, to the 1.334 pages of his own Ento-mologie analytique (1860). An assessment of this somewhat neglected and essentially classificatory part of his literary production would require much further study.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. The bibliography of Duméril’s writings (193 works) in the éloge in A. Moquin-Tandon, Discours prononcé par… Moquin-Tmdan (Paris, 1861), should be supplemented by the article in Annates de la Société eniomologique de France. 3rd ser.. 8 (1860). 647-662. which lists 82 items, principally on entomology; and by the Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers, II, 392-395, with 75 references.

Dunieril’s works include Traité élémentaire d’histoire naturette(Paris. 1804) —a special printing was presented in the form of questions and answers, and a 2nd ed. (1807) contained illustrations; Zoologie analytique… à I’aide de tableaux synoptiques (Paris, 1806), German trans, by L. F. Froriep (Weimar, 1806); Dissertation sur la famille des poissons cyclostomes (Paris, 1812), a résumé of one of Duméril’s thèses de sciences; Erpéto-fogie générate, 9 vols, and atlas (Paris, 1835-1854), written with G. Bibron and Auguste Duméril; “Ichtyologie analytique… à Paide de tableaux synoptiques,” which is Mi’moires de I’Académic des sciences de I’ln-stitut impérial de France,27 , pt. I (1856); and “Ento-mologie analytique,” 2 pts., ibid..31 (1860).

II. Secondary Literature. A. Moquin-Tandon’s éloge (see above), which draws on Dumérirs extensive personal papers; and P. Flourens, Élogt historique de A. M. C Duméril (Paris, 1863), which contains severe but carefully disguised criticism; were summarized by J. Guibé, “A.M.C. Duméril le père de Terpétologie…” in Bulletin du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, 30, no. 4(1958), 329-341. See also De Caraven, A. M. C. Duméril médecin ei son temps(n.p., n.d.), with genealogical tables, which is well documented concerning Dumérirs medical career.

On Dumérirs collaborators, see C, Duméril, “Allocution sur la tombe de G. Bibron,” in Revue ef magasin de zoologie, 2nd ser., 1 (1849), 589-592; and P. Gervais, “’Discours… sur la tombe de… A. Duméril,” in Bulletin de Muséum national d%histoire naturelle, 7 (1871). 15-24, with bibliography of 50 works by A. Duméril.

Franck Bourdier