Antoine Gouan

Antoine Gouan (November 15, 1733 - September 1, 1821) was a French naturalist who was a native of Montpellier. Gouan was a pioneer concerning Linnaean taxonomy in France.

He began his studies in Toulouse, and later returned to Montpellier, where he studied medicine at the University. Here he was a student of François Boissier de Sauvages de Lacroix (1706-1767), who was an ardent supporter of Carolus Linnaeus. In August 1752, Gouan received his doctorate under the chairmanship of Antoine Magnol (1676-1759), and subsequently practiced medicine at the Saint-Éloi Hospital of Montpellier. Soon afterwards his interest turned to natural history.

In 1762 Gouan published a plant catalog of the Botanical Garden at Montpellier titled "Hortus regius monspeliensis". This publication was the first French botanical work that followed the binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus. In 1765 he penned "Flora Monspeliaca", and became "devient titulaire" of the Montpellier Academy. During this time period he attained a position at the Botanical Garden, and was in charge of collection and classification of plant species. In 1770 he published an important ichthyological treatise called "Historia Piscicum", which expanded the number of fish genera that existed in the Linnaean system.

In 1766 he succeeded Sauvages de Lacroix at the Faculty of Medicine, and in 1783 became a foreign member of the Linnean Society of London. During his career he maintained correspondence with several learned scientists and thinkers, which included in addition to Linnaeus, Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), Jean Guillaume Bruguière (1750-1798), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), et al.

Gouan is credited with planting the first ginkgo biloba in France, which was given to him by naturalist Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (1761-1807). Today this tree is still standing at the Botanical Garden of Montpellier. During his career he also amassed a large collection of algae that was harvested around Marseille.

References

* "This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia."