Nicolas Desmarest

Nicolas Desmarest ( born September 16, 1725 in Soulaines; † September 28, 1815 in Paris) was a French geologist. His son was the zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest.

Life and work

Desmarest was the only child of Jean Desmarest, a teacher in the country and his wife Marguerite Clement. When his father died and his mother married again in February 1741 Desmarest was sent to the University of the Oratory of Troyes, Oratoriens de Troyes. Here he received a solid education. So he left for Paris Troyes end of 1746 or beginning of 1747. In 1771 he was a member of the Académie des sciences.

In the 1760s, he pointed the volcanic origin of basalt by (see also basalt dispute ). In 1761, he attended the Dairies in Franche -Comté and Lorraine. He wrote in Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie on the art of making cheese, l' Art de le fromage fabriquer, but also articles on the physical geography, géographie physique and fountain fontaine.

Works

• Dissertation sur l' ancienne jonction de l' Angleterre à la France. Paris 1753
• Conjectures physico- méchaniques sur la propagation of secousses dans les tremblemens de terre et sur ​​la disposition des lieux qui en ont les effets resentments. [ Paris ] 1756
• Mémoire sur l' origine et la nature du basalte à grandes colonnes polygonal, determinées par l' histoire naturelle de cette pierre, observée s Avergne In: Mémoires de l' Académie Royale des Sciences à Paris pour 1771 ( and 1773 )
• Géographie - physique. 5 volumes. Paris, [ 1794/95 ] -1828