Ignace-Gaston Pardies

Ignace-Gaston Pardies (September 5 1636 – 22 April, 1673), was a French scientist. He died of fever contracted whilst ministering to the prisoners of Bicêtre Hospital, near Paris.

He was born in Pau, the son of an advisor at the local assembly. He entered the Society of Jesus 17 Nov., 1652 and for a time taught classical literature; during this period he composed a number of short Latin works, in prose and verse. After his ordination he taught philosophy and mathematics at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. His earliest scientific work is the "Horologium Thaumanticum Duplex" (Paris, 1662), in which is described an instrument he had invented for constructing various kinds of sundials. Three years later appeared his "Dissertatio de Motu et Natura Cometarum", published separately in Latin and in French (Bordeaux, 1665). His "La Statique" (Paris, 1673) argued that Galileo's theory was not exact. This, along with "Discours du mouvement local" (Paris, 1670), and the manuscript "Traité complet d'Optique", in which he followed the undulatory theory of light (which identifies it as a harmonic vibration), form part of a general work on physics which he had planned.

He opposed Isaac Newton's theory of refraction and his letters together with Newton's replies (which so satisfied Pardies that he withdrew his objections) are found in the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" for 1672 and 1673. A proponent of Mechanism, his "Discours de la Connaissance des Bestes" (Paris, 1672) combatted Descartes's views on animals, but did so so weakly that many looked on it as a covert defence rather than a refutation, an impression which Pardies himself afterwards endeavoured to destroy. His "Elémens de Géométrie" (Paris, 1671) was translated into Latin and English. He left in manuscript a work entitled "Art de la Guerre" and a celestial atlas comprising six charts, published after his death (Paris, 1673-74). His collected mathematical and physical works were published in French (The Hague, 1691) and in Latin (Amsterdam, 1694). He was a member of the academy of anatomist Pierre Michon Bourdelot.

References

*Sommervogel, "Bibl. de la C. de J." (Brussels, 1895).
*Catholic|Ignace-Gaston Pardies
*Frenchtrans|Ignace-Gaston Pardies|2008-01-20