Editing Mathurin Jacques Brisson (section)

{{Short description|French zoologist and natural philosopher}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Brisson Mathurin Jacques 1723-1806.png
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=yes|1723|04|30}}
| birth_place       = [[Fontenay-le-Comte]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1806|06|23|1723|04|30}}
| death_place       = [[Croissy-sur-Seine]], [[First French Empire|France]]
| fields            = [[Zoology]], [[ornithology]], [[entomology]]
| workplaces        = [[College of Navarre]], Paris
| known_for         = ''Ornithologie''
| author_abbrev_bot = '''Briss.'''
| author_abbrev_zoo = '''Brisson'''
| awards            = [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]]
}}

'''Mathurin Jacques Brisson''' ({{IPA|fr|matyʁɛ̃ ʒak bʁisɔ̃}}; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French [[zoologist]] and [[natural philosophy|natural philosopher]].

Brisson was born on 30 April 1723 at [[Fontenay-le-Comte]] in the [[Vendée]] department of western France.<ref name=swainson>{{ cite book | last=Swainson | first=William | author-link=William Swainson | title=Taxidermy : bibliography and biography | year=1840 | volume=- | place=London | publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans | pages=139–141 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40476611 }} Note that page 141 is before page 140.</ref> His parents wished him to take ecclesiastic orders, but in 1747, he abandoned his studies,<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Birembaut  | first=Arthur | date=1958 | title=Les liens de famille entre Réaumur et Brisson, son dernier élève | journal=Revue d'Histoire des Sciences et de Leurs Applications | volume=11 | issue=2 | pages=167–169 | doi=10.3406/rhs.1958.4400 | url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/rhs_0048-7996_1958_num_11_2_4400 }}</ref><ref name=merland>{{ cite book | last=Merland | first=Constant | date=1883 | chapter=Mathurin-Jacques Brisson | title=Biographies vendéennes | volume=2 | language=French | location=Nantes, France | publisher=Vincent Forest & Émile Grimaud | pages=1–47 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/biographiesvend02merl/page/1/mode/1up }}</ref> and from 1749,<ref name=merland/> was employed by the wealthy French naturalist [[René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur]] as the curator of a large private collection of objects related to natural history that de Réaumur kept at his ancestral home at [[Réaumur, Vendée|Réaumur]] in the Vendée.<ref name=stresemann>{{ cite book | last=Stresemann | first=Erwin | author-link=Erwin Stresemann | translator-last1=Epstein | translator-first1=Hans J. | translator-last2=Epstein | translator-first2=Cathleen | editor-last=Cottrell | editor-first=G. William | year=1975 | title=Ornithology From Aristotle to the Present | location=Cambridge, MA | publisher=Harvard University Press | isbn=978-0-674-64485-4 | pages=53–54 }} Originally published by F. W. Peters in 1951 as ''Die Entwicklung Der Ornithologie von Aristoteles bis zur Gegenwart''.</ref>

Brisson became interested in the classification of animals and was influenced by the works of [[Carl Linnaeus]] and [[Jacob Theodor Klein]].<ref name=stresemann/> His book ''Le Règne animal'' was published in 1756,{{sfn|Brisson|1756}} and the highly regarded six-volume work ''Ornithologie'' was published in 1760.{{sfn|Brisson|1760}}

The English ornithologist [[Alfred Newton]] wrote of Brisson's ''Ornithologie'' that it was "a work of very great merit so far as it goes, for as a descriptive ornithologist the author stands even now unsurpassed;{{nbsp}}...".<ref name=newton>{{ cite book | last=Newton | first=Alfred | author-link=Alfred Newton | year=1893–1896 | title=A Dictionary of Birds | location=London | publisher=Adam and Charles Black | page=9 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33017357 }}</ref> For each species Brisson clearly indicated whether he had examined a specimen or whether he was relying on descriptions by other authors.<ref name=newton/> Although in Brisson coined a Latin name for each bird species, these do not conform to the [[binomial nomenclature|binomial system]] and are not recognised by the [[International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature]] (ICZN).<ref name=allen>{{cite journal |last=Allen | first=J.A. | author-link=Joel Asaph Allen | year=1910 | title=Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=28 | pages=317–335 | hdl=2246/678}}</ref> However, Brisson also introduced names for [[genera]] and these are accepted by the ICZN.<ref>{{ cite book | editor-last=Hemming | editor-first=Francis | year=1958 | orig-year=1911 | title=Opinions and Declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature | volume=1 Section B | place=London | publisher=International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature  | chapter=Opinion 37: Shall the genera of Brisson's "Ornithologia," 1760, be accepted | pages=87–88 | chapter-url=http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34612774 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite journal | last=Hemming | first=Francis | year=1962 | title=Brisson, 1760 "Ornithologie" Proposed restriction on validation granted under the plenary powers to certain portions of that work Z.N.(S.) 702 | journal=Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature | volume=19 | issue=1 | pages=9–14 | url=http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12220868 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite journal | last=China | first=W.E. | year=1963 | title=Direction 105: Brisson, 1760, ''Ornithologie'': restriction to certain portions of that work of the validation granted under the Plenary Powers | journal=Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature | volume=20 | issue=5 | pages=343–344 | url=http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12221684 }}</ref> Linnaeus relied heavily on Brisson's work when updating his ''[[Systema Naturae]]'' for the [[12th edition of Systema Naturae|twelfth edition]] in 1766. Linnaeus added 386 bird species of which 240 were based exclusively on Brisson.<ref name=allen/>

De Réaumur died in 1757 and although in his will he left his large collection to the [[French Academy of Sciences]], it was instead absorbed into the "Cabinet du roi", the royal natural history collection in Paris.<ref name=bruce>{{ cite book | last=Bruce | first=Murray | year=2003 | chapter=Foreword: A brief history of classifying birds | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Christie | editor3-first=D.A. | title=Handbook of the Birds of the World | volume=8: Broadbills to Tapaculos | location=Barcelona | publisher=Lynx Edicions | pages=11–43 [18] | isbn=978-84-87334-50-4 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0008unse/page/n18/mode/1up | chapter-url-access=registration }}</ref> Brisson abandoned zoology and in 1762 succeeded [[Jean-Antoine Nollet]] as professor of physics at the [[College of Navarre]] in Paris.<ref name=stresemann/>

For a period of time, Brisson was an instructor of physical sciences and natural history to the family of the monarch.<ref name=swainson/> From 1759, he was a member of the [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=beauchet/>

A significant work involving the "[[specific weight]] of bodies" was his ''Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps'' published in 1787.{{sfn|Brisson|1787}} In his investigations of [[electricity]], Brisson was opposed to the theories of [[Joseph Priestley|Priestley]] and [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]].<ref>{{ cite book | editor-last=Knight | editor-first=Charles | date=1856 | title=The English Cyclopædia: A New Dictionary of Universal Knowledge | location=London | publisher=Bradbury & Evans | page=923 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJtlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA923 }}</ref>

He married Marie-Denise Foliot de Foucherolles on 24 April 1775. They had three children.<ref name=beauchet>{{ cite book | last1=Beauchet-Filleau | first1=H. | last2=Beauchet-Filleau | first2=P. | date=1895 | title=Dictionnaire historique et généalogique des familles du Poitou | volume=2 | language=French | location=Poitiers, France | publisher=Oudin | page=6 | url=https://archive.org/details/dictionnairehist02beau/page/6/mode/1up }}</ref>
He died on 23 June 1806 at [[Magny-les-Hameaux]] near Versailles.