Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier | |
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| Born | 27 June 1717 Paris |
| Died | 7 September 1799 (1799-09-08) (aged 82) Versailles |
| Occupation | Natural scientist |
Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier (sometimes written asLemonnier) (27 June 1717 – 7 September 1799) was a Frenchnatural scientist and contributor to theEncyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.[1]
He was born nearVire as the son ofPierre Le Monnier (1675–1757), who was a scientist himself and a member of theFrench Academy of Sciences.[2] Louis-Guillaume's older brother was the astronomerPierre Charles Le Monnier.[3]
Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier worked in physics, geology, medicine, and botany. In 1739 he accompanied the expedition ofCésar-François Cassini de Thury andNicolas Louis de Lacaille to extend theMeridian of Paris and documented mines and the geology and botany along the route.[2] In the same year, he also began working at the hospital ofSaint Germain en Laye as a physician. He researched electrical phenomena, sending a current from aLeyden jar through a wire 950toises (about 1,850 m) long and concluded that electricity propagated "instantaneously" in the wire.[4] Later research of his on electrical phenomena was concerned withthunderstorms and the "fair weather condition".[5]
Like his father and his brother before him, Louis-Guillaume became a member of theAcadémie des sciences on 3 July 1743,[2] and was elected a fellow of theRoyal Society on 7 February 1745,[6] of which his brother also was a member. On 30 June 1746, one year after his brother, he also became a member of thePrussian Academy of Sciences.[7]
With Claude Richard he was one of the original organizers ofLouis XV's botanic collection atPetit Trianon, an undertaking quickly joined byBernard de Jussieu. Lemonnier was appointed professor of botany at the Jardin du Roi (later theJardin des Plantes) in 1759, filling a spot left by the death ofBernard de Jussieu's brotherAntoine in April of the previous year. In 1786 he was succeeded as professor of botany byRené Louiche Desfontaines.[8]
ForDiderot'sEncyclopédie he wrote several entries, among them "Electricité", "Magnétisme", "Aimant" (Magnet), and "Aiguille aimantée" (Compass needle).[3][9] After 1759, he stopped publishing, though.[10] In his later career, he became in 1770 "Premier médecin ordinaire"[10] and in 1788 "Premier médecin du Roi".[2]
His lover wasMarie Louise de Rohan,Madame de Marsan, futureGoverness of the Children of France.
His publications include:
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