My scientist, Comte de Buffon!
(Georges-Louis Leclerc) ~By: Adrianna Schoonover~
The Early Years of a Comte
The Hardships of a 1700's Scientist
How Did the Comte de Buffon Contribute to Science?
The Comte de Buffon published a translation of Stephen Hale's "Vegetable Staticks", and in the preface he put his view on the scientific method. He also published a translation of "Fluxions" by Isaac Newton. In that preface he compared and contrasted Newton and Gottfriend Wilhelm Leibniz over calculus. He researched on the properties of timbers and their improvement in Burgundy forests. He then wrote "Historie Naturelle", an encyclopedia about everything in the natural world at that time. 100 years before Darwin, he discussed in this book, the relation of Man to apes and their common ancestry. He believed in organic change, yet did not provide any coherent mechanism to explain the changes. He thought the environment acted directly on organic particles. Again he published another book titled "Les Epoques de la Nature" where he challenged the views of the church by saying the Earth was much older than their 6,000 year birthrate. Georges-Louis Leclerc started evolutionist ideas, challenging the church and coming up with his own theories that continue to be believed by many people today.
Sources
Piveteau, Jean. "Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count De Buffon (French Naturalist)."Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.