Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (; 20 July 170013 August 1782) was a French physician, naval engineer and botanist.

Having learned from Sir Hans Sloane that madder possesses the property of giving colour to the bones, he fed animals successively on food mixed and unmixed with madder; and he found that their bones in general exhibited concentric strata of red and white, while the softer parts showed in the meantime signs of having been progressively extended.

Meteorological observations

From the year 1740 on he made meteorological observations, and kept records of the influence of the weather on agricultural production. For many years he was inspector-general of the marine, and applied his scientific experience to the improvement of naval construction.

:- Denis Diderot, 1767.

Diderot seems to forget his debt to Duhamel du Monceau for the Encyclopédie, including the articles "Agriculture," "Rope," "Pipe" and "Sugar."

The succession of Jean-Paul Grandjean de Fouchy, perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, clash sees supporters of Condorcet, led by d'Alembert, and those of the astronomer Bailly, led by Count de Buffon. In 1773, the appointment of Condorcet as deputy Grandjean de Fouchy sees the triumph of the party of the philosophers against the use of naval officers linked to Duhamel.

But in January 1775, supporters of Bailly, including Patrick D'Arcy and Jean-Charles de Borda, both naval officers make up a commission to monitor the work of the Secretary, that Condorcet considered censorship. To be elected, he must give up the pension ECU 1000 and submit an application in proper form to respect the rules of Académie2. Condorcet would later refer to this episode:

: "Though he loved many innovations in science and devoted his life to introduce useful ones in the arts, he didn't like them in politics and even less in the statutes of the academies"

:- Marquis de Condorcet, 1783

Memory

Asteroid 100231 Monceau, discovered by astronomer Eric Walter Elst at the La Silla Observatory in 1994, was named in his memory.

  • Histoire d'un insecte qui devore les grains de l'Angoumois, with Mathieu Tillet, published by H. L. Guérin & L. F. Delatour, Paris, 1762
  • Traité de l'exploitation des bois, 1764
  • Traité de la garance, et de sa culture, 1765
  • Traité du transport des bois et de leur conservation, 1767
  • Traité des arbres fruitiers. 1768
  • Traité géneral des pêches, 1769

References

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  • Traité Général des Pesches – A collection of plates from the book by Duhamel du Monceau and Jean-Louis de la Marre, considered one of the finest works on fishing and fisheries, from UBC Library Digital Collections