Editing Adolphe d'Archiac

{{Short description|French geologist and paleontologist}}
[[File:Adolphe d'Archiac.jpg|thumb|Adolphe d'Archiac]]
'''Étienne Jules Adolphe Desmier de Saint-Simon, Vicomte d'Archiac''' (24 September 1802{{snd}}24 December 1868) was a French [[geologist]] and [[paleontologist]].

==Early life==
He was born at [[Reims]] and educated at the [[École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr|Military School of St. Cyr]]. He served for nine years as a cavalry officer until 1830, when he retired from the service. Prior to this he had published an historical romance (''Zizim, ou les Chevaliers de Rhodes, roman historique du XVe siècle'');<ref>{{cite book |last=Archiac |first=Vicomte d' |title=Zizim et les Chevaliers de Rhodes : Roman Historique du XVe Siècle |location=Paris |publisher=Bridelle |date=1828 |oclc=647958193 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/647958193}}</ref> but now [[geology]] became his primary focus. In his earlier scientific works, which date from 1835, he described the [[Tertiary]] and [[Cretaceous]] formations of France, Belgium and England, and dealt especially with the distribution of [[fossils]] geographically and in sequence. Later on he investigated the [[Carboniferous]], [[Devonian]] and [[Silurian]] formations.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Magnum opus==
His best work was "''Histoire des progrès de la géologie de 1834 à 1859''", published in eight volumes (1847–1860). In 1853 the [[Wollaston Medal]] of the [[Geological Society of London]] was awarded to him.<ref>{{cite book|last=Woodward|first=Horace B|title=The History of the Geological Society of London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N98yAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA317|year=1908|publisher=Longman, Greens, and Co|location=London|isbn=978-1-290-06463-7|page=317}}</ref> In the same year, with [[Jules Haime]] (1824–1856), he published a monograph on the [[Nummulitic]] formation of [[India]]. In 1857 he was elected a member of the [[French Academy of Sciences]], and in 1861 he was appointed professor of paleontology in the [[Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle]] in Paris. His better known later works include "''Paléontologie stratigraphique''", in three volumes (1864–1865); "''Géologie et paléontologie''" (1866);<ref>{{cite book|last1=Darwin|first1=Charles|last2=Costa|first2=James T.|title=The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0E03ilhSz4C&pg=PA512|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03281-1|page=512}}</ref> and his paleontological contributions to [[Pierre Alexandrowitsch de Tchihatcheff|de Tchihatcheff]]'s "''Asie mineure''" (1866).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps and Drawings in the British Museum (Natural History) ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-JGAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA56|year=1903|publisher=By Order of the Trustees|page=56}}</ref>

==Death==
While suffering from severe depression he committed suicide by throwing himself into the [[River Seine]] on Christmas Eve, 1868.

==See also==
* [[Mount D'Archiac]], a mountain in New Zealand named after him.

==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia
  | last = Birembaut
  | first = Arthur
  | title = Archiac, Étienne-Jules-Adolphe Desmier (or Dexmier) de Saint-Simon, Vicompte d'
  | encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]
  | volume = 1
  | pages = 209–212 
  | publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
  | location = New York
  | date = 1970
  | isbn = 0-684-10114-9
 }}

==References==

{{reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Archiac, Étienne Jules Adolphe Desmier de Saint Simon|volume=2|page=366}}

==External links==
* [http://classify.oclc.org/classify2/ClassifyDemo?search-author-txt=%22Archiac%2C+Adolphe+d'%2C+vicomte%2C+1802-1868.%22 OCLC Classify] List of publications by Adolphe d'Archiac.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Archiac, Adolphe d}}
[[Category:French paleontologists]]
[[Category:French geologists]]
[[Category:1802 births]]
[[Category:1868 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Reims]]
[[Category:Suicides by drowning in France]]
[[Category:Wollaston Medal winners]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:1860s suicides]]