Naturalists' Practices and Nature's Empire: Paris and the Platypus, 1815-1833 1

Richard W Burkhardt Jr. 2

Abstract: Among the multiple interactions between governments and museums that were so important for the growth of natural history in the nineteenth cen­ tury, perhaps none looked more promising at its inception than did the special "school for naturalist voyagers" that was instituted at the Museum of Natural History in Paris in 1819. Proposed initially by the French Minister of the Inte­ rior, who also promised to fund the operation, the idea ofthe school was to train young naturalists who could then be sent off to the far corners of the globe in search of plants, animals, and minerals useful to France and interesting to science. The professors of the Museum were enthusiastic about the Minister's idea. However, aligning the interests ofthe naturalists at the Museum with those of the French government and a collection of young, aspiring naturalist voyagers was not an entirely straightforward matter. This paper considers the school for naturalist voyagers in the light of France's prior experiences with naturalist voyages (most notably the Baudin expedition to Australia), her most pressing colonial needs in the early years of the Restoration, and the practices of the naturalists of the Paris Museum. The platypus makes an appearance here amidst a contest over the control of specimens. Finally, we consider notions of "the empire of nature" and what resonance such notions might have had at the Paris Museum at the time the school for naturalists was promoted.

NAPOLEON'S FALL FROM power in 1814, re­ With the Napoleonic wars over and the free­ confirmed by his final defeat in 1815, had dom of the seas restored, the Museum would multiple and diverse implications for the nat­ be able to send naturalist voyagers once again uralists of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle to the far corners of the globe. in Paris. One of these was that the naturalists All these prospects had an obvious bearing would need to establish productive relations on the continued quality of the Museum's with a new French government. A second was collections and the work of the naturalists lo­ that there would soon be representatives of cated there. In this paper, I focus on the first other governments on the Museum's door­ and third of these stories, leaving aside the step, calling for the restoration of natural matter of the negotiations that took place history treasures that France had confiscated over the possible repatriation of previously from their countries over the previous two confiscated specimens. I address the specific decades. A third was that the Museum would ways in which, in the early years of the Res­ have the opportunity to do something it had toration, the National Museum of Natural not been able to do for more than a decade. History in Paris and the French government sought to promote the activities of naturalist voyagers for the benefit ofscience and France I The research for this paper was supported in part by alike. National Science Foundation Grant No. SBR-9601390. Manuscript accepted 1 February 200l. 2 University of illinois, Urbana-Champaign, illinois NATURALISTS, EMPIRE, AND THE EMPIRE 61820. OF NATURE Scholars in recent years have called attention Pacific Science (2001), vol. 55, no. 4:327-341 to the ways in which science has functioned as © 2001 by University of Hawai'i Press a tool of empire (Brockway 1979, McKay All rights reserved 1985, Reingold and Rothenberg 1987, Mac-

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Leod and Lewis 1988, MacLeod and Reh­ Museum contributed to France's efforts in bock 1988, 1994, McClellan 1992, MacLeod this regard. As for the circumstances that 1993, 2000, Osborne 1994, Miller and Reill might have stimulated naturalists to think in 1996, Drayton 2000). They have examined, terms of nature's empire, I suggest that no­ among other things, how metropolitan "cen­ tions of nature's empire were more likely to ters of accumulation" figured in these impe­ crop up in colonial settings than back in Paris. rial enterprises (Latour 1987). But they have Colonists attempting to reshape local ecolo­ also noted occasions when, as Marie-Noelle gies inevitably had more of an appreciation of Bourguet has put it, "the interests of science nature's resistances to human intervention and the interests of the empire did not go ... than did the naturalists of the metropole at the same pace" (Bourguet 1997:193). And whose chief concerns were with the control they have likewise found that scientific activ­ and classification of specimens. ities on the periphery at times generated im­ portant new insights and practices and were FRENCH NATURALIST VOYAGERS AND THE not simply derivative ofthe theories and plans LESSONS OF THE PACIFIC generated at imperial centers (Grove 1995, and others cited above). Does the Pacific have a role to play in this In this paper I consider France's efforts story? It does, albeit more as recurrent bit during the Restoration to use natural histori­ part than as a dominant role. Understand­ cal knowledge for the development of her ing the natural history of the Pacific was colonies. I also look at the Paris Museum of not the top priority of either the French Natural History as a center of accumulation. government or the Paris Museum in the years One of my main points will be the heteroge­ immediately after 1815. When it came to neity of interests in play here. The interests promoting overseas natural history activities of the French government and the Paris Mu­ between 1815 and 1820, the French govern­ seum intersected in ways that were advanta­ ment was above all concerned with activities geous to both parties, but these interests were that would benefit France's colonies, and at not entirely identical. For that matter, as we that time France had no colonies in the shall see, the interests of the naturalists of the Pacific. As for the Museum's naturalists in Museum were not themselves completely ho­ that period, they were very interested in the mogeneous. As a window on the respective Pacific as a source of specimens, but they aspirations of the government and the Mu­ were more concerned with the specimens seum in this period, I examine a number of themselves than they were with understand­ overtures that the government made to the ing in detail the places from which the speci­ Museum between 1817 and 1819, together mens came. with the Museum's responses. The highlight Historians of the Pacific will be quick to ofthese was the establishment at the Museum recognize that France had a long tradition of in 1819 of a special school for the training of voyages of exploration in the Pacific before naturalist voyagers. The story of the school the Revolution, and that under the Restora­ for naturalist voyagers remains largely unex­ tion she launched a new series of Pacific voy­ plored in the history of science and even in ages, specifically those of Louis de Freycinet the more specialized history of French natu­ on the Uranie (1817-1820), Louis-Isidore ralist voyages (but see Thesee 1989, Collini Duperrey on the Coquille (1822-:-1825), and and Vannoni 1997, and, most recently, Cham­ Jules Dumont d'Urville on the Astrolabe bord 1998). (1826-1829) (Dunmore 1969). In these In keeping with the title of the conference voyages, however, and particularly in that session for which this paper was prepared, I of Freycinet, naturalists of the Museum also offer some brief remarks on the concept thought their interests were given little pri­ of nature's empire. There is no doubt that the ority. The reason for this is worth our Museum profited from France's efforts to ex­ attention. tend France's empire. It is also clear that the In the years after Napoleon's fall from Paris and the Platypus . Burkhardt 329 power, French thinking about future voyages provided France with a handful of experi­ of exploration was inevitably influenced by enced naturalist voyagers. In the early years experiences from the recent past. The pri­ of the Restoration, three veterans of the mary example to ponder was thus the expedi­ Baudin voyage proved especially valuable tion of Captain Nicolas Baudin to Australia when it came to sending the Museum new (1800-1804). specimens from abroad. One was the botanist Significantly for our story, opinions on the J.-B. Leschenault de la Tour. The other two success of the Baudin voyage were quite were the artist-naturalists Charles-Alexandre mixed by the time the second of the ex­ Lesueur and Jacques Milbert. Former partic­ pedition's two main ships, Ie Giowaphe, re­ ipants in the Baudin expedition did more than turned to France in 1804. From an imperial send specimens back to Paris, however. They point of view, the voyage was of limited also sent-or in Leschenault's case, delivered success. It returned important intelligence -plants and animals from one colonial set­ on British fortifications and naval deploy­ ting to another. Likewise active in this regard ments, but although it affixed the name was Baron Pierre-Bernard Milius, the naval "Terre Napoleon" to French maps of a huge commander in charge of bringing Ie Gio­ area now forming part of South Australia, it waphe back to France after Baudin's death. failed to establish any clear claims for France In 1818 Milius was named commandant and to Australian territory. Furthermore, a great administrator for the king at Isle Bourbon. many of its officers, crew, and scientific staff Four years later he was given the equivalent had been lost to illness, desertion, or death. post in French Guiana. His efforts in shipping Captain Baudin himself had succumbed to exotic plants and animals from one part of the tuberculosis at Isle de France in 1803 on world to another were prodigious. the voyage home. On top of this, stories Beyond providing the Museum, the na­ abounded of mismanagement and corruption tion, and the colonies with specimens and on the part of the captain. Napoleon is experienced voyagers, the Baudin expedition alleged to have remarked, "Captain Baudin also generated a series of lessons that were did well to die; if he had returned I would factored into plans for subsequent voyages. have hanged him" (Horner 1988:12). The most consequential of these was the re­ From the Museum's perspective, however, minder that the interests of naval officers and things looked immensely better. The expedi­ naturalists did not always coincide with each tion had brought an enormous haul of nat­ other. The frictions that developed between ural history specimens back to France. The Captain Baudin and the zoologist Fran<;ois zoological collections in particular were Peron had been severe. This fact was not lost especially impressive. These numbered over on Louis de Freycinet, who commanded the 100,000 specimens, plus some 960 paintings. small vessel named the Casuarina during the Among the animals represented were a num­ expedition and who later, after Peron's death ber of remarkable forms that had only re­ in 1810, was given the job of completing the cently become known to Western science. official account of the voyage. When in 1817 These included the platypus (first described Freycinet was appointed commander of the by Shaw in 1799), the wombat (described Uranie, he elected to have no civilian natu­ by Shaw in 1800), dasyures (described by ralists on board. Every member of the expe­ Kerr in 1792 and Shaw in 1800), kangaroos, dition was to be in the service of the navy­ and more (Bonnemains et al. 1988). Beyond and thus directly under his orders. This was a these, there were more than 2500 animal great source of discontent for the naturalists species (most of them invertebrates, but a of the Museum. Fortunately, the expedition's number of vertebrates as well) never pre­ physician, Rene-Constant Quoy, and its sur­ viously described by Western naturalists geon, Paul Gaimard, proved to be enthusias­ (Jussieu 1804). tic and perspicacious observers and collectors, Not only did the Baudin voyage provide and the Museum ended up profiting from the the Museum with a wealth of specimens, it expedition of the Uranie much more than 330 PACIFIC SCIENCE· October 2001 the professors initially anticipated (Geoffroy provenance of his specimens seems to have Saint-Hilaire 1825). Quoy and Gaimard sub­ become separated from the specimens them­ sequently sailed with Dumont d'Urville on selves as they made their way into the Mu­ the expedition of the Astrolabe, and the Mu­ seum's collections. The potential significance seum became accustomed to thinking of them of the biogeographical data Peron had gath­ as "physician-naturalists." The Museum like­ ered (and, for that matter, of biogeographical wise benefited from the collecting efforts of data in general) was not exploited at the Mu­ naval pharmacist voyagers, most notably seum at that time (Burkhardt 1997a). Rene-Primevere Lesson and Charles Gau­ dichaud-Beaupre (Laissus 1981). It remained AN EYE TO THE COLONIES, AND the case, nonetheless, that in these expedi­ SPECIMENS FOR THE MUSEUM tions naval interests took precedence over the interests of the naturalists. Let us turn now to the natural history con­ The Baudin expedition afforded other les­ cerns of the French government and the sons as well. It reinforced the importance of Museum as these stood in 1815. Intimately having trained scientists do the observing, related to the government's interest in natural recording, and collecting on a voyage. It tes­ history was the need to reassert the position tified to the multiple difficulties of trans­ of France outre-mer. In the immediate post­ porting specimens from the far corners of the Napoleonic era, the question of overseas col­ globe back to Paris. In addition, it provided onies was urgent. France's colonial posses­ a new example of the tensions that could sions had been significantly reduced during emerge between the collectors of specimens the Napoleonic Wars and in consequence of in the field and the cabinet naturalists back at the Treaty of Vienna. Saint-Domingue had the Museum who wanted access to the speci­ revolted and established its own independence mens as soon as possible. The professors of as Haiti. Also lost to France, by the terms the Museum were prepared to recognize, at of the Peace of 1814, were Isle de France least in principle, that naturalist voyagers (Mauritius), the Seychelles, and various deserved the right to be the first to describe small islands in the West Indies. France was in print the specimens they had collected. allowed, however, to keep La Reunion, However, they grew anxious when Peron Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guiana, and her and Lesueur took specimens away from the comptoirs in Senegal (Saint-Louis and Goree), Museum and spent too long writing up their India (Pondichery, Chandernagor, Mahe, reports. When Peron died in 1810, a host of Yanaon, and Karikal), and Saint-Pierre and specimens from the voyage still remained in Miquelon. Reestablishing a productive en­ his apartment. The Museum moved quickly gagement with these colonial possessions was to have the apartment sealed so that no spec­ high on the government's list of priorities. imens would be lost (Bonnemains 1988). In the early years ofthe Restoration, there­ There was another lesson that might have fore, political and natural history reconnec­ emerged from the Baudin expedition but that tion with the far corners of the globe pro­ does not seem to have taken adequate hold. ceeded to go hand in hand. Naturalists traveled During the voyage, the zoologist Peron had abroad on the same ships that carried French recorded with unprecedented care precisely ambassadors or other administrators. When where he had collected his different speci­ the frigate I'Hermione sailed from France for mens. This allowed him to note, among other Rio de Janeiro on 1 April 1816, her pas­ things, how particular species successively sengers included not only the French ambas­ gave way to other species as one traveled far­ sador, the duc de Luxembourg, but also the ther north or south. This caught the attention botanist Auguste de Saint-Hilaire and the of the invertebrate zoologist J.-B. Lamarck zoologist Pierre-Antoine Delalande (Saint­ in particular, who found support in Peron's Hilaire 1822). A month later, when the king's discoveries for his own ideas about species corvette la Licorne sailed from France for change. However, Peron's information on the India, she carried not only the administrators Paris and the Platypus . Burkhardt 331 charged with retaking possession of France's Indonesia, the Mollucas, the Antilles, outposts in India, but also the botanist Cayenne, the neighborhood of the Orinoco Leschenault de la Tour, who had been ap­ River, and New Holland (Australia) as prime pointed "naturalist of the king" and direc­ regions for exploration. What they wanted tor of the colonial garden at Pondichery above all from Australia, they said, were (Leschenault de la Tour 1822). The artists "Ornithorhyncuses [platypuses] of different Jacques Milbert and Charles-Alexandre species, in quantity if possible, in alcohol [eau Lesueur likewise traveled overseas in 1816. de vie]." They also wanted flying phalangers, Milbert traveled with the King's Minister to dasyures, and other didelphes (also preserved North America, the Baron Hyde de Neuville. in alcohol) ("Instructions" 1818:217). Lesueur traveled not with the support of the The professors published their set of in­ French government but rather in the employ structions in the Memoirs of the Museum and of the British geologist William Maclure. By also as a separate booklet in July 1818. They 1817 both Milbert and Lesueur were lobby­ sent 100 copies off to the Minister of the ing for commissions to collect natural history Marine. When the Minister immediately specimens for the Paris Museum. asked for 50 copies more, they sent him an In this period of renewed overseas activ­ additional 100 (ANF, A]/15/118, A]/15/616). ities, when patrons were seeking the help of For his part, the Minister of the Interior naturalists and naturalists were seeking the (then Joseph-Henri-Joachim Laine) invited support of patrons, the French Ministries of the professor administrators of the Museum the Marine and the Interior, in the midst in November 1818 to think broadly about of internal changes of their own, moved to sending naturalists off on voyages to collect establish closer and more systematic relations plants and grains that could be brought back with the Museum. The Minister of the Ma­ and acclimatized either in France or in the rine in 1817, the Comte de Mole, took the colonies. He promised to provide funds for first step. In December 1817 he invited such voyages. More immediately, he was the Museum to prepare a set of generalized eager to see that means be taken "to transport instructions for colonial officials, ship com­ and to acclimatize in Senegal and at Cayenne manders, and other travelers who might be [French Guiana] the tree the bark ofwhich is in a position to make collections on the Mu­ the Quinquina." He reminded the professors seum's behalf. Mole had already been asked that he also wanted them to identify a botanist by Georges Cuvier and the Baron de Ferus­ who could be sent to French Guiana to over­ sac, independently of one another, for assis­ see in that colony the cultivation of useful tance in securing particular specimens from trees. Famous for the antimalarial properties faraway lands. Mole decided that a general set of its bark, the quinquina or cinchona tree was of instructions would be useful for travelers, recognized as a critical resource for Euro­ his Ministry, and the Museum alike. peans seeking to establish colonies in fever­ The Museum's zoologists, botanists, and ridden parts of the globe (ANF, A]/15/118, mineralogists were more than happy to co­ A]/15/616). operate with the Minister's request. They The Museum's professors Rene Louiche collectively composed a 47-page set of in­ Desfontaines and Andre Thouin prepared a structions detailing the kinds of natural his­ detailed document responding to Laine's re­ tory researches that might usefully be under­ quests. On 18 November 1818 they presented taken in the colonies. They described how to at the weekly professorial assembly their re­ collect specimens (both live and dead), how port on "two propositions of his Excellency to conserve these specimens, and how to the Minister of the Interior, one relative to transport them to France. They also took the natural history collections and the other to occasion to identify the particular kinds of the introduction of the quinquina trees in the plants and animals they wanted from all colonies" (ANF, A]/15/616). They took as around the globe. They named Senegal, the their first task "the project of sending Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, India, naturalists and agriculturists to the two 332 PACIFIC SCIENCE· October 2001 hemispheres in order to procure the most in­ present rural economy, and additional useful teresting productions of the least known productions were likely to exist there still. countries." They praised the Minister for Turning to the New World, Desfontaines conceiving of the project, indicating that it and Thouin explained that what was known was "well worthy of the grandeur of the of the products of North America, South French government." They then described in America below the Tropics, Australia, and detail what would be needed for the project New Zealand was limited primarily to mate­ to work. First and foremost, it would require rials that had been collected near the coasts. energetic and healthy young men who were They held out the reasonable prospect that knowledgeable about natural history and the interior of these areas had additional use­ about collecting, preparing, preserving, and ful organisms yet to offer. transporting specimens. Having promoted at length the idea of The simplest way of getting these natural­ sending naturalists to all corners of the globe, ists to faraway countries and back again, the the professors turned to the more specific professors suggested, was to have them travel project of naturalizing the cinchona tree in on government or commercial ships when French Guiana. They offered a positive these ships sailed to or from the countries in assessment of these prospects, numerous question. The professors noted, however, the difficulties notwithstanding. Finally, they disadvantages in tying collecting expeditions concluded their report to the Minister by too closely to the schedules of the govern­ identifying the botanist Antoine Poiteau as ment or commerce. Governmental or com­ the ideal person to oversee the botanical mercial schedules often failed to put the needs of the Guiana colony. collector in the field long enough, or at the Laine responded graciously to the pro­ best seasons of the year, for collecting speci­ fessors' report. He thanked them for their mens. Likewise, plants and animals from insights and information and indicated that warm climates too often ended up being he had passed the report on to the Minister of shipped back to Europe at times of the year the Marine so that the two of them jointly when the weather was especially hazardous might help achieve the ends desired, "when for their health. A better arrangement, the favorable circumstances present themselves." professors indicated, was to establish collect­ His comments also made clear what con­ ing bases where, over a more or less extended tinued to be the project of most immediate period of time, a naturalist in the field would concern: finding the cinchona tree. He asked have the opportunity to build up extensive the Museum to provide specific instructions collections. Ideally, these bases would be in that could be communicated to administra­ operation long enough to allow for multiple, tors in Guiana and Senegal to help them successive shipments of specimens to be sent identify the tree in their respective areas off to Europe, thereby insurance against the (ANF, A]/15/565). sorts of losses that were all too common in such endeavors. THE SCHOOL FOR NATURALIST VOYAGERS In their report, Desfontaines and Thouin went on to review for the Minister the parts Two months later, inJanuary 18J9, there was of the world where one was most likely to a new Minister of the Interior, Elie Decazes. find plants and animals capable of being Decazes was the former Minister of the Po­ acclimatized in France. Particularly promis­ lice. He was also a favorite of the king. Along ing collecting places in the Old World were the lines that had begun to be explored by the the shores of the Caspian and Black Seas, previous Minister of the Interior, Laine, and Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia, the Caucasus most likely with the encouragement of his Mountains, and the plateaus ofthe Tatars and own general secretary, the botanist Charles­ Tibet. These areas, the professors suggested, Fran~ois Brisseau de Mirbel (who would later had provided the original sources of France's become a professor at the Museum himself), Paris and the Platypus . Burkhardt 333

Decazes moved to establish a more coordi­ making colonies like Guiana and Senegal nated program for supporting naturalist more habitable to French colonists and more voyages. Mirbel communicated the Minister's profitable to France. Not only did they want idea to the Museum. The Minister was pro­ to know ifthe cinchona tree could be grown in posing an "Ecole de jeunes naturalistes des­ Guiana or Senegal, they were also interested tines ades voyages dans les diverse parties du in other transplantations as well-and not monde" (school for young naturalists des­ only of plants. We find, for example, the tined for voyages in the diverse parts of the Minister of the Interior inquiring of the world). The Minister not only proposed the Museum in December 1819 whether it was idea ofthe school, he indicated his willingness feasible to transport mongooses from Africa to put up the funds for the operation: 20,000 to Martinique as a means of cutting down the francs per year to support students in the snakes and rats that were such a scourge to school and naturalist voyagers in the field the colonists there. Significantly enough, in (ANF, Al/15/11S). The purpose ofthe school this case, the Minister went on to ask whether was to train young men so that they could be a too great multiplication of mongooses in sent off to the far corners of the globe in the colonies might not in itself cause certain search of plants, animals, and minerals useful "inconveniences." The professors cheerfully to France and/or interesting to science. Not­ responded that a problem might arise from withstanding the history of governmental the fact that the mongoose was as fond of support for naturalist ventures ofvarious sorts fowl and other birds as it was of snakes and previously, what the Minister was proposing rats. They believed, however, that the bene­ was new. He was offering continuing govern­ fits of the ~ongoose's transplantation were mental support for Museum-sponsored natu­ likely to far outweigh any disadvantages. If ralist explorations and not merely funds for the mongoose did begin to increase too specific expeditions. Twenty thousand francs, greatly in number, they noted, it would at any furthermore, was a substantial fund. It repre­ rate be easier to diminish its numbers than sented roughly 7 to 8% of the total budget of the numbers of snakes (ANF, A]/15/618). the Museum at that time. The professors happily advised the gov­ The professors of the Museum, not sur­ ernment on these and other matters. At the prisingly, were enthusiastic about the Minis­ same time, they looked out for their own ter's idea. They quickly appointed a committee interests. Once assured of funding for natu­ to reflect on the idea and report back to the ralist voyagers, they wanted to have the pri­ professorial assembly as a whole. The com­ mary say with respect to where these voyagers mittee's report, delivered on 10 February would be sent. 1819, could not have been more positive. The selection of candidates for the new ~peaking for the committee, the zoologist "school for naturalist voyagers" took place Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire hailed the in April 1819. A team of professors inter­ Minister's plan as "an innovation for our so­ viewed twenty-nine applicants, chose six cial relations that cannot fail to be welcomed for admission to the school, and identified with feelings of a very deep gratitude." three for immediate commissions as voyagers. Geoffroy did not hesitate to spell out the The Museum proposed sending the three to material implications of the Minister's pro­ Madagascar, the Philippines, and the shores posal: it tended toward "nothing less than ofthe Black Sea. As the Museum explained to augmenting, and in a more methodical man­ the Minister of the Interior, the island of ner [than ever], the sum of materials without Madagascar was "of all the parts of the world which natural history would be unable to the one where one can hope to collect the make great progress" (ANF, A]/15/565). most new things." The Philippines, "like all What was in this for the government? the isles of the archipelago ofthe Indies," was Ministers of the Marine and the Interior "rich in singular plants and animals," and it wanted to use the Museum's expertise in seemed a likely place to find organisms that 334 PACIFIC SCIENCE· October 2001 would be "useful to our colonies." As for the ralist explorer sent to Madagascar. Just 3t shores of the Black Sea, this was an area that weeks after he set foot on the island, the 25­ naturalists still knew only superficially, and year-old Havet succumbed to a violent fever where France could "collect many things (Marquis 1821-1826). Auguste Plee, the third useful for our agriculture" (ANF, A]/15/565). and the oldest of the three initial representa­ The new Minister of the Marine (Baron tives of the "school for naturalist voyagers," Portal) had other plans. On 2 June 1819 he survived in the Caribbean considerably wrote to the Museum indicating that he had longer-5 years and 5 months, to be precise. asked the Minister of the Interior to order He died in Martinique in August 1825 at the that two of the naturalist voyagers that the age of 39, just as he was making final prepa­ government was proposing to send to diverse rations to return to France. His years as a countries be specifically directed to French collector in the Caribbean had not been as Guiana. "Few explorations of this kind," productive as either he or the Museum had Portal pontificated, "can be more interesting hoped. Insufficient funding from the Museum for science in general than those which would and difficulties of maintaining communica­ take place in this country; and few countries tion with it had hampered his operations are as susceptible of offering to the work of (Thesee 1989). naturalists so vast and rich a field." The baron Given these unfortunate results with the also indicated that he expected this to be done above-mentioned voyagers, it would be re­ right away. Because the Minister of the Inte­ assuring if one were able to report that the six rior would presumably be instructing the candidates who were selected for further Museum to do as he asked, Portal said, he training at the Museum's school for natural­ wanted the Museum to prepare instructions ists fared any better. Ultimately only one of as soon as possible for the two voyagers (plus them, however, Victor Fontanier, completed a copy for himself). He also wanted the two the training in Paris and went out in the field voyagers to be able to embark with the new as a voyager for the Museum, and he proved commandant and administrator of Cayenne, only marginally successful at best. From the who in fact was leaving for Roquefort the Museum's perspective, Fontanier's shipments next day (ANF, A]/15/617). from the Levant were all too infrequent, and The professors were unwilling to accede to when they did arrive they were uninspiring. Portal's demands that two of the three new Yet the project of the school for naturalist voyagers be dispatched immediately for voyagers was not a complete disappointment Guiana. They held their ground with respect to the Museum. The reason for this is clear. to their candidates for Madagascar and the Although the school itself fizzled out, from Philippines. They were willing to compro­ 1819 until 1832 the Museum received 20,000 mise, however, when it came to the third francs per year from the Minister of the In­ destination, settling on the Caribbean instead terior to support naturalist voyagers. In 1833 of the Black Sea. the budget was increased. The Museum had It would be nice to be able to report to never intended to use more than 6000 francs readers of Pacific Science that the naturalist annually for the training of students, and sent to the Philippines, a young man named 20,000 francs per year was a great help sus­ Felix-Fran~ois Godefroy, made an important taining naturalists in the field. When neces­ contribution to the study of the natural his­ sary, furthermore, the Museum was able to tory of the Pacific. Alas, he did not. Some 7 draw upon its voyager funds for other enter­ weeks after arriving in Manila, the 22-year­ prises as well. When, for example, the Mu­ old Godefroy was killed along with some 20 seum decided in 1826 to provide no further other foreigners by angry natives who be­ funding to Diard, its voyager in the East lieved that the foreigners were responsible for Indies, this freed funds that were then em­ an outbreak of cholera (Thesee 1989:211­ ployed to pay for a research trip to the Alps 215). Even shorter was the career in the field by the professor of geology, another pro­ ofArmand Etienne Maurice Havet, the natu- fessor's research trip to Berlin, some financial Paris and the Platypus . Burkhardt 335 assistance to Plee's widow, and the purchase laughed upon recalling the "good and gullible price of two quaggas, sold to the Museum by Parisians who engaged us to zig-zag across the British animal dealer Edward Cross this Republic, starting from the North, with­ (ANF, AJ/15/567). out neglecting a single mountain." Even if Furthermore, even if the first six enrollees this had been physically possible, the political in the school were not successes from the revolutions ofthe region made the professors' Museum's point ofview, and even if the Mu­ naive plan inoperable. seum never again advertised for candidates What the professors were best able to for its "school for naturalist voyagers," the communicate to the voyagers were not the Museum in the mid-1820s did use some of realities of fieldwork but rather the kinds of its annual funding to train additional young animals, plants, and minerals that were most men to be voyagers. It did so for at least two needed for the Museum's collections. As for individuals: Victor Jacquemont and Alcide the practical matters of how best to collect, d'Orbigny. Both Jacquemont and d'Orbigny preserve, and transport specimens, the pro­ ended up making important collections for fessors passed on the advice of the late the Museum. Jacquemont, unfortunately, be­ Franr;ois Peron and the Museum's head taxi­ came another martyr to science, dying after a dermist, the aide-naturaliste Dufresne. few years in India, but d'Orbigny not only Alcide d'Orbigny, as Darwin scholars will lived long enough to tell the tale of his trav­ recall, was the naturalist who traveled in els, he ultimately became a professor at the South America just before Darwin did. In a Museum himself (Chambord 1998). letter of October 1832, Darwin wrote from Montevideo to John Stephens Henslow back in England worrying that d'Orbigny might be THE CREAM OF THE SPECIMENS beating Darwin to the punch in the collection The full story of the promotion of French of prize specimens. As Darwin told Henslow, naturalist voyagers during the Restoration "I am very selfishly afraid that he will get the remains to be written. Here we have simply cream of all the good things, before me" sketched out the major motivations and (Darwin 1985:280, Browne 1997:202). initiatives that were constitutive of the The cream of the specimens was indeed government's and the Museum's efforts. The what the professors back at the Museum motives and perspectives of the voyagers or hoped their voyagers would send them. In­ would-be voyagers are subjects for another deed within just 3months ofDa~in's penning time. The professors at the Museum as a the above words to Henslow, Etienne Geof­ whole, it bears noting, had actually not froy Saint-Hilaire used much the same expres­ logged many miles pf their own in voyages sion at the Museum in Paris. He did so in to foreign lands. Etienne Geoffroy Saint­ January 1833 in a fit of pique, accusing his Hilaire had participated in Napoleon's expe­ colleague, Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blain­ dition to Egypt, but otherwise the professors' ville, the new professor of comparative anat­ most productive collecting expeditions seem omy, ofdenying him access to particular spec­ to have been those occasions when, in con­ imens. What Blainville was doing, Geoffroy junction with French troops, they collected complained, was what Blainville's predecessor, specimens not through fieldwork but rather Georges Cuvier, had so frequently done when by appropriating specimens from the mu­ Cuvier was director of the Museum. Cuvier, seums or menageries of other countries. The Geoffroy said, had seen to it that new ship­ professors had only a limited appreciation of ments of specimens were unpacked before his what was involved in being on one's own, eyes. Then, with the new specimens in front collecting in a foreign clime. The voyagers of him, he had "unduly creamed off" ("ecre­ came to recognize this. Claude Gay, for ex­ mait induement")-the italics are Geoffroy's­ ample, having traveled in Chile for the Paris the particular specimens he needed for writing Museum, wrote to Alcide d'Orbigny in 1830 his great work on comparative anatomy. describing how he and a colleague had Geoffroy was furious that this great injustice 336 PACIFIC SCIENCE· October 2001 was being allowed to persist at the Museum. the galleries of anatomy. They were waiting As it appeared to him, specimens that should the time when Eydoux would exercise his have been available for all to see were being right of describing them in print. As Blain­ closeted away in obscure storerooms under ville pointed out to his fellow professor­ the control of the new professor of compara­ administrators, he did not have the authority tive anatomy. Geoffroy's attempts to have this to dispose of Eydoux's specimens however he discussed in the professorial assemblies, he saw fit. They had simply been deposited with told his colleagues, had left him so upset that him for safekeeping. he was unable to sleep at night, and his health Geoffroy's accusations led to the appoint­ was suffering because of it (ANF, A]/15/645). ment of a committee to investigate whether And what were the specimens that Geof­ specimens ofgreat importance to the Museum froy in 1833 was so exercised about? Here were being sequestered in the storerooms of we finally get to reconnect with the theme the professor of comparative anatomy. The of "Pacific science." The specimens in this committee, composed of Andre Marie Con­ case were marsupials and monotremes stant Dumeril and Achille Valenciennes, from Australia, collected and transported ended up recommending that the professorial back to France, preserved in alcohol, by For­ assembly issue an administrative rule about tune Eydoux, surgeon on the French ship Le the deployment of specimens (a rule that was Favorite. Geoffroy could only presume (or supposed to be the practice of the Museum hope), that the collection was higWighted by anyway). The rule was that the professor of specimens of the ornithorhyncus, the duck­ comparative anatomy should only be allowed billed platypus, that marvelous anomaly of to hold specimens in reserve when the species animal organization. in question were already well represented in The platypus was at this moment one of the zoology galleries. The debate over the Geoffroy's special interests. Some years platypus thus turned not only upon the clas­ earlier he had advanced the view that the sification of the creature but also upon the platypus was oviparous, and that it was not a whole issue of the control of specimens at the mammal. He argued that platypuses be put Museum (ANF, A]/15/645). (For discussion with the Echidnae in a class of their own, of the platypus in Britain, see Ritvo 1997.) independent of, and equal in status with, the mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. In 1833 he CABINET NATURALISTS VERSUS was engaged in an ongoing, heated debate NATURALIST VOYAGERS with Blainville about the proper classification of the platypus. Blainville took the view that Georges Cuvier had always had a keen eye to the platypus was indeed a mammal, albeit a the collection and control of specimens. He bizarre one, with affinities to the marsupials had also left no doubt with respect to his own (Burrell 1927). Geoffroy, alluding not to his opinion that laboratory or museum studies immediate quarrels with Blainville but rather were ultimately more illuminating than to contemporary British claims about the studies conducted out in the field. Early in platypus, urged his colleagues that he had a the century, in analyzing for the Institut de long-standing "mission" to pursue the con­ France Alexander von Humboldt's achieve­ tested question of the nature of the platypus. ments as a naturalist voyager, Cuvier made it The tales of naturalist voyagers collecting clear that he regarded the work of the cabinet specimens for the Paris Museum thus do not naturalist back in the Museum to be every bit simply end with a ship returning safely to as intellectually challenging and indeed France and its cargoes unloaded. Critical heroic as the work of the naturalist in the steps in a specimen's journey had still to be field. Cuvier acknowledged that the cabinet taken at the Museum itself. At the time naturalist might not be able to see "nature in Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire lodged his complaint action," but he felt that the advantages of the against Blainville, Eydoux's specimens were cabinet naturalist nonetheless outweighed the stored in a cabinet under the main stairway of advantages of the naturalist in the field. The Paris and the Platypus . Burkhardt 337

cabinet naturalist, Cuvier argued, was able to typically not in a position to explore the in­ pass all of nature's objects in front of him, terior of the continents they visited. At the and study them in depth, and was not subject same time, though, he made it clear that he to the various limitations that the "narrow was more interested in the "connection of route" of the naturalist voyager's practice im­ facts" than the collection of specimens. posed on the voyager (Outram 1984:62-63, "The discovery of an unknown genus," as 1996). he put it, "seemed to me far less interesting Two decades later, in reporting on the than an observation on the geographical rela­ scientific results of Duperrey's Coquille voy­ tions of the vegetable world, on the migra­ age to the Pacific, Cuvier expressed the same tion of the social plants, and the limit of the basic view of the superiority of the cabinet height which their different tribes attain on naturalist to that of the field naturalist when the flanks of the Cordilleras" (Humboldt and he spelled out things that the field naturalist Bonpland 1818, I:iv). (Be that as it may, Hum­ should not do: "it is a great error, while on a boldt and his traveling companion, Aime voyage, to do anything but collect the raw Bonpland, reported the discovery of some material for study, either by preparing forty new genera of plants from the Torrid specimens or by drawing what cannot be Zone.) preserved, or, finally, by writing down the We know that Humboldt's travels as a ephemeral details that the specimen does not naturalist were an inspiration to later natu­ retain. It is likewise a mistake to waste time ralists. D'Orbigny and Darwin were both in­ with descriptions or in the search for nomen­ spired by Humboldt's writings. Indeed when clature, work which will always have to be d'Orbigny was in Paris preparing for his up­ started afresh once back in the laboratory" coming travels, he made a point of visiting (Ollivier 1988:49). From Cuvier's perspective, Humboldt to get all the suggestions from the what mattered was that as many specimens as great traveler that he could. We know also, possible were collected in the field, and that however, that what the professors of the Mu­ these made it back to his laboratory with their seum were looking for above all else was not organizational features intact. the kind of information Humboldt had col­ In the same year (1825), Georges Cuvier's lected about physical forces and the distribu­ younger brother Frederic, in his capacity as tion of plants. What the professors wanted superintendent of the menagerie of the Mu­ most ofall were more specimens. This is clear seum of Natural History, expressed a similar from the general instructions they provided view of the nonessentiality of fieldwork. for naturalist voyagers. Nonetheless, field He suggested that menagerie studies might observations were encouraged by at least someday render field studies unnecessary. In some of the Museum staff. Etienne Geoffroy Frederic Cuvier's view, when one learned the Saint-Hilaire's son Isidore not only provided general faculties and dispositions of a given d'Orbigny with notes on which species of animal species by studying it in a menagerie, birds and mammals were especially needed it would no longer be necessary to track the for the Museum's galleries, but also requested animal down in its native country to see how in particular that d'Orbigny make observa­ it lived in the wild. As long as one had a de­ tions on these creatures' behavior, "still so cent appreciation of the environmental con­ little known" (d'Orbigny 1835,1:5). ditions of the country, one could predict in advance how the animal would behave there (Cuvier 1825, Burkhardt 1997b). THE EMPIRE OF NATURE, THE EMPIRE OF Humboldt, interestingly enough, in THE MUSEUM, AND THE EMPIRE OF FRANCE writing his Personal Narrative of his travels, How did naturalist voyages intersect with contrasted his own practices as a naturalist notions of the empire ofnature? Certainly one traveler not so much with the cabinet natu­ construction ofthe empire ofnature emerged ralists back in European centers as with the through a comparison ofthe powers ofnature naturalists of maritime expeditions who were with the powers of humans. This perspective 338 PACIFIC SCIENCE· October 2001 was integral, for example, to the "Primary unravel a host of biogeographical problems View" of nature that Buffon set forth in (Candolle 1820). Vol. 12 of his Histoire naturelle, generale et For their part, the naturalists at the Paris particuliere in 1764. There Buffon contrasted, Museum during the Restoration were dis­ on the one hand, nature as it exists without inclined to worry much about the influence of the cultivating hand of humans, and, on the climate or to think in terms of the empire of other hand, an improved nature, made more nature versus the empire ofhumans. This may beautiful and productive as humans turned have been at least in part because they were plains into pastures, planted vineyards on not firsthand witnesses to the sorts of resis­ hillsides, and so forth. Buffon wrote of "the tances that confronted voyagers or especially empire" that humans share or divide with colonists on location. Back at the Museum, nature. At the same time he noted that hu­ they were disposed to ignore ecological con­ mans only enjoy these bounties as the result texts and focus instead on organic forms. of the right of conquest, and whenever they When the professors of the Museum cease their industry, "everything returns un­ would have been most likely to think at all in der Nature's hand; she reclaims her rights" terms of nature's empires was when they were (Buffon 1954:34). called upon by the government to provide If we thus understand the idea of na­ advice on specific needs of specific parts of ture's empire to involve a general idea of the France's empire. Could the cinchona tree be sovereignty of nature's powers, then we grown in the colonies of French Guiana and can well imagine Humboldt's science to have Senegal? Could mongooses be brought from been particularly conducive to such thinking. Africa to control snakes and rats in Marti­ Humboldt had demonstrated how climatic nique? These, as I have indicated, were proj­ and other conditions confined plants to ects on which the naturalists of the Museum particular regions of the globe (Dettelbach willingly lent their expertise. But they were 1996). Significantly enough, furthermore, he also projects where the naturalists remained had paired the political precariousness of the confident of humanity's empire over nature. Spanish colonies of South America with the They themselves only indirectly experienced fragility of their successes in agriculture. In the occasional failures of European empire. his words, "internal dissensions are chiefly They did not have the firsthand experiences to be dreaded in regions, where civilization of the colonists or, for that matter, their is but slightly rooted; and where, from the own naturalist voyagers. They were not with influence of climate, the forests may soon Havet in Madagascar, for example, when he regain their empire over cleared lands, if was vomiting up black blood and dying of their culture be abandoned" (Humboldt fever. Nor were they with Godefroy in the and Bonpland 1818, I:xlix-l). Philippines when angry natives hacked him to In a period of burgeoning imperial inten­ death. Back at the Museum, the professors tions, however, ideas of nature's empire over were inclined to downplay political and eco­ humans were not preeminent. Significantly, logical contexts and focus instead on ques­ even the Genevan botanist Augustin Pyramus tions of organic form. de Candolle, who, following Humboldt, was The issues that exercised the professors pioneering the science of plant biogeography the most-the issues of the sort that caused at precisely the period in question, was not Geoffroy sleepless nights-pertained to the thinking in terms of the empire of nature so collection of specimens and their subsequent much as he was worrying about how human control and analysis back at the Museum. To activities around the globe were disrupting repeat what Geoffroy said about the school the prior distribution of plant forms. Can­ for naturalist voyagers, its chief feature at­ dolle urged that European botanists hasten traction to the Museum was that it promised to study the flora of faraway lands before to increase in a regular fashion "the sum intended or accidental plant introductions in of materials without which natural history those places made it no longer possible to would be unable to make great progress." Paris and the Platypus . Burkhardt 339

The French government conceived of the tralian waters: The artwork of the French school for naturalists with the expectation Voyage of Discovery to the Southern that discoveries by naturalists would be of Lands 1800-1804. Oxford University appreciable benefit to the health and the Press, Melbourne. wealth of the colonies. The professors of the Bonnemains, Jacquelin, Elliott Forsyth, and Museum, by contrast, viewed the school above Bernard Smith, eds. 1988. Baudin in Aus­ all as a means of ensuring supplies of speci­ tralian waters: The artwork of the French mens upon which their sciences depended. Voyage of Discovery to the Southern They would identify, order, and display these Lands 1800-1804. Oxford University specimens in the galleries of the great metro­ Press, Melbourne. politan institution that was the Paris Museum Bourguet, M.-N. 1997. La Collecte du of Natural History. From the standpoint of monde: Voyage et histoire naturelle (fin their scientific practice, nature's empire was XVIIeme siecle-debut XIXeme siecle). simply the sum total of her products. To the Pages 163-196 in C. Blanckaert, C. cabinet naturalist, in other words, as the col­ Cohen, P. Corsi, and].-L. Fischer, eds. Le lections of the Paris Museum swelled, the Museum au premier siecle de son histoire. museum and the empire of nature became Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, one and the same. Archives, Paris. Brockway, Lucile H. 1979. Science and colo­ nial expansion: The role of the British ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Royal Botanic Gardens. Academic Press, I thank Roy MacLeod for what I trust will be New York. continuing discussion of different meanings Browne, Janet. 1997. Une science imperial­ of "the empire of nature." iste: L'histoire naturelle britannique et les voyages d'exploration de Banks a Darwin. Pages 197-210 in C. Blanckaert, Literature Cited C. Cohen, P. Corsi, and].-L. Fischer, eds. Le Museum au premier siecle de son his­ Manuscripts toire. Museum National d'Histoire Na­ The details of the story of the school for turelle, Archives, Paris. naturalist voyagers and the initiatives that Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de. led up to the founding of the school are to 1954. Histoire Naturelle. Premiere Vue! be found in manuscript documents of the Pages 30-35 in Jean Piveteau, ed. Oeuvres Museum d'Histoire Naturelle conserved in philosophiques de Buffon. Presses Uni­ Paris at the Archives Nationales de France versitaires de France, Paris. (cited in the text as ANF). Most helpful here Burkhardt, Richard W., Jr. 1997a. Unpacking are the two series "Minutes des Prod~s Ver­ Baudin: Models of scientific practice in baux des Assemblees de professeurs, et pieces the age of Lamarck. Pages 497- 514 in annexes" (A]/15/577-678) and "Proces Ver­ Goulven Laurent, eq. Jean-Baptiste La­ baux des Assemblees des professeurs" (A]/15/ marck, 1744-1829. Editions du CTHS, 96-142) and a number of cartons devoted Paris. exclusively or in part to naturalist voyagers ---. 1997b. La menagerie et la vie du (especially A]/15/565). Museum. Pages 481-508 in C. Blanckaert, C. Cohen, P. Corsi, and].-L. Fischer, eds. Le Museum au premier siecle de son his­ Printed Sources toire. Museum National d'Histoire Na­ Bonnemains, Jacqueline. 1988. The history turelle, Archives, Paris. of the Lesueur collection of the Museum Burrell, Harry. 192 7. The platypus: Its dis­ d'histoire naturelle du Havre. Pages 65-68 covery, zoological position, form and in Jacquelin Bonnemains, Elliott Forsyth, characteristics, habits, life history, etc. and Bernard Smith, eds. Baudin in Aus- Angus & Robertson, Sydney. 340 PACIFIC SCIENCE· October 2001

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