Information About

Jean-etienne Guettard




In boyhood, he gained a knowledge of Plant s from his grandfather, who was an Apothecary , and later he qualified as a Doctor In Medicine . Pursuing the study of Botany in various parts of France and other countries, he began to take notice of the relation between the distribution of plants and the Soil s and Subsoil s. In this way his attention came to be directed to Mineral s and Rocks .

In 1746 , he communicated to the Academy Of Sciences in Paris a memoir on the distribution of minerals and rocks, and this was accompanied by a Map on which he had recorded his observations. He thus, as remarked by W. D. Conybeare , first carried into execution the idea, proposed by of his journeys he made a large collection of Fossil s and figured many of them, but he had no clear ideas about the sequence of Strata .

He made observations also on the Degradation of mountains by rain, rivers and sea; and he was the first to ascertain the existence of former Volcano es in the district of Auvergne . He died in Paris on the 7th of January 1786.

His publications include:
  • ''Observations sur les plantes'' (2 vols, 1747)

  • ''Histoire de la découverte faite en France de matières semblables à celles dont la porcelaine de la Chine est composée'' (1765)

  • ''Mémoires sur différentes parties des sciences et arts'' (5 vols, 1768-1783)

  • ''Mémoires sur la minéralogie du Dauphiné'' (2 vols, 1779).


See ''The Founders of Geology'', by Sir A Geikie (1897).