,
Côte-d'Or, France Buffon's
Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749–1788: in 36 volumes; an additional volume based on his notes appeared in 1789) was originally intended to cover all three "kingdoms" of nature but the
Histoire naturelle ended up being limited to the animal and mineral kingdoms, and the animals covered were only the birds and quadrupeds. "Written in a brilliant style, this work was read ... by every educated person in Europe". In the opening volumes of the
Histoire naturelle Buffon questioned the usefulness of mathematics, criticized
Carl Linnaeus's taxonomical approach to natural history, outlined a history of the Earth with little relation to the Biblical account, and proposed a theory of reproduction that ran counter to the prevailing theory of
pre-existence. The early volumes were condemned by the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne. Buffon published a retraction, but he continued publishing the offending volumes without any change. In the course of his examination of the animal world, Buffon noted that different regions have distinct plants and animals despite similar environments, a concept later known as Buffon's Law. This is considered to be the first principle of
biogeography. He made the suggestion that species may have both "improved" and "degenerated" after dispersing from a center of creation. In volume 14 he argued that all the world's
quadrupeds had developed from an original set of just thirty-eight quadrupeds. On this basis, he is sometimes considered a "
transformist" and a precursor of
Darwin. He also asserted that
climate change may have facilitated the worldwide spread of species from their centers of origin. Still, interpreting his ideas on the subject is not simple, for he returned to topics many times in the course of his work. Buffon originally held that "the animals common both to the old and new world are smaller in the latter," ascribing this to environmental conditions. Upon meeting Buffon,
Thomas Jefferson attempted "to convince him of his error," noting that "the reindeer could walk under the belly of our moose." Buffon, who was "absolutely unacquainted" with the moose, asked for a specimen. Jefferson dispatched twenty soldiers to the
New Hampshire woods to find a bull
moose for Buffon as proof of the "stature and majesty of American quadrupeds". According to Jefferson, the specimen "convinced Mr. Buffon. He promised in his next volume to set these things right." In
Les époques de la nature (1778) Buffon discussed the origins of the
Solar System, speculating that the planets had been created by a
comet's collision with the Sun. He also suggested that the
Earth originated much earlier than 4004 BC, the date determined by Archbishop
James Ussher. Basing his figures on the cooling rate of
iron tested at his Laboratory the
Petit Fontenet at
Montbard, he calculated that the Earth was at least 75,000 years old. Once again, his ideas were condemned by the
Sorbonne, and once again he issued a retraction to avoid further problems. Buffon knew of the existence of extinct species as
mammoths or European
rhinos. And some of his assumptions have inspired current models, such as
continental drift.
Publications •
Histoire naturelle, générale et particuliére, 1749–1767. Paris:
Imprimerie Royale. • Volumes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15. • A four-volume English edition, ''Buffon's Natural History of the Globe, and of Man: Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles and Insects'', edited by , was published in 1831, with a second edition, "corrected and enlarged", in 1833. •
Discours sur le style — delivered as speech in 1753, frequently republished ==Anthropological studies==