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René Primevère Lesson (March 20, 1794 - April 28, 1849) was a French surgeon and naturalist.

Lesson was born at Rochefort, and at the age of sixteen he entered the Naval Medical School there. He served in the French Navy during the Napoleonic Wars; in 1811 he was third surgeon on the frigate Saal, and in 1813 second surgeon on the Regulus^{[citation needed]}.

In 1816 Lesson changed his classification to pharmacist and served as pharmacist and botanist on Duperrey's round-the-world voyage of La Coquille (1822-1825), and was also responsible for collecting natural history specimens with his fellow surgeon Prosper Garnot and officer Dumont d'Urville. Lesson was the first naturalist to see live birds of paradise in the Moluccas and New Guinea^{[citation needed]}.

On returning to Paris, he spent seven years preparing the vertebrate zoological section of the official account of the expedition, Voyage au tour du monde sur La Coquille (1826-39). During this time he also produced Manuel d'Ornithologie (1828), Traité d'Ornithologie (1831), Centurie Zoologique (1830-32) and Illustrations de Zoologie (1832-35)^{[citation needed]}.. He also produced several monographs on hummingbirds and one book on birds of paradise. In 1832 he became Deputy Chief Pharmacist and later (1839) Chief Pharmacist for the Navy at Rochefort. He received the Légion d'honneur in 1847.

His experience as a ship's surgeon resulted in his two-volume Manuel d'Histoire Naturelle Médicale et de Pharmacologie (1833), intended as a handbook for all naval surgeons.

Rene-Primevere Lesson is sometimes confused with his brother Pierre-Adolphe who was also a doctor and sailed with d'Urville in 1826.

[edit] External links

• Gallica Digital versions of works by René Primevère Lesson. Several works Full bibliographic citation Recherche is the French for search.

• Compléments de Buffon par P. Lesson.Paris :P. Pourrat Frères,1838. BDH

• Histoire naturelle des zoophytes. Acalèphes par René-Primevère Lesson Paris,Librairie encyclopédique de Roret,1843. BDH

• Journal de la navigation autour du globe, de la frégate La Thétis et de la corvette L'Espérance, pendant les années 1824, 1825 et 1826 :publié par ordre du roi sous les auspices du Département de la marine par baron de Bougainville.Paris :A. Bertrand,1837. BDH

• Species des mammifères bimanes et quadrumanes; suivi d'un mémoire sur les Oryctéropes Paris,J.B. Baillière,1840 BDH

[edit] References

• Raymond Duguy (1995). René Primevère Lesson. Un voyage autour du monde. in Aventures scientifiques. Savants en Poitou-Charentes du XVIe au XXe siècle (DHOMBRES J., dir.), Les éditions de l’Actualité Poitou-Charentes (Poitiers) : 136-147. (ISBN 2-911320-00-X)