Mathurin Jacques Brisson

Mathurin Jacques Brisson was a French <a href="/facts/Zoologist/6Kj13mBt">zoologist</a> and <a href="/facts/Natural_philosophy/CUAsDWdk">natural philosopher</a>.
Brisson was born on 30 April 1723 at <a href="/facts/Fontenay-le-Comte/CUvb6DoV">Fontenay-le-Comte</a> in the <a href="/facts/Vend%25C3%25A9e/MKKMmnys">Vendée</a> department of western France. His parents wished him to take ecclesiastic orders, but in 1747, he abandoned his studies, and from 1749, was employed by the wealthy French naturalist <a href="/facts/Ren%25C3%25A9_Antoine_Ferchault_de_R%25C3%25A9aumur/JHbj9AzJ">René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur</a> as the curator of a large private collection of objects related to natural history that de Réaumur kept at his ancestral home at <a href="/facts/R%25C3%25A9aumur%2c_Vend%25C3%25A9e/QXHVJ2d6">Réaumur</a> in the Vendée.
Brisson became interested in the classification of animals and was influenced by the works of <a href="/facts/Carl_Linnaeus/gy5HWkHS">Carl Linnaeus</a> and <a href="/facts/Jacob_Theodor_Klein/AG74RvEJ">Jacob Theodor Klein</a>. His book Le Règne animal was published in 1756, and the highly regarded six-volume work Ornithologie was published in 1760.
The English ornithologist <a href="/facts/Alfred_Newton/xXQ3L4xH">Alfred Newton</a> wrote of Brisson's Ornithologie that it was "a work of very great merit so far as it goes, for as a descriptive ornithologist the author stands even now unsurpassed; ...". For each species Brisson clearly indicated whether he had examined a specimen or whether he was relying on descriptions by other authors. Although in Brisson coined a Latin name for each bird species, these do not conform to the <a href="/facts/Binomial_nomenclature/jgBqAhPv">binomial system</a> and are not recognised by the <a href="/facts/International_Commission_on_Zoological_Nomenclature/krrmj3EL">International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature</a> (ICZN). However, Brisson also introduced names for <a href="/facts/Genera/m8EFjSms">genera</a> and these are accepted by the ICZN. Linnaeus relied heavily on Brisson's work when updating his <a href="/facts/Systema_Naturae/8o4rU1DD">Systema Naturae</a> for the <a href="/facts/12th_edition_of_Systema_Naturae/HsKv1IxL">twelfth edition</a> in 1766. Linnaeus added 386 bird species of which 240 were based exclusively on Brisson.
De Réaumur died in 1757 and although in his will he left his large collection to the <a href="/facts/French_Academy_of_Sciences/zF42DYQv">French Academy of Sciences</a>, it was instead absorbed into the "Cabinet du roi", the royal natural history collection in Paris. Brisson abandoned zoology and in 1762 succeeded <a href="/facts/Jean-Antoine_Nollet/NU6mmjay">Jean-Antoine Nollet</a> as professor of physics at the <a href="/facts/College_of_Navarre/gnSaRaf9">College of Navarre</a> in Paris.
For a period of time, Brisson was an instructor of physical sciences and natural history to the family of the monarch. From 1759, he was a member of the <a href="/facts/French_Academy_of_Sciences/zF42DYQv">Academy of Sciences</a>.
A significant work involving the "<a href="/facts/Specific_weight/NRhILXxs">specific weight</a> of bodies" was his Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps published in 1787. In his investigations of <a href="/facts/Electricity/hNC8D65W">electricity</a>, Brisson was opposed to the theories of <a href="/facts/Joseph_Priestley/hQGV26wA">Priestley</a> and <a href="/facts/Benjamin_Franklin/Dmfv5URr">Franklin</a>.
He married Marie-Denise Foliot de Foucherolles on 24 April 1775. They had three children.
He died on 23 June 1806 at <a href="/facts/Magny-les-Hameaux/FIHqDue5">Magny-les-Hameaux</a> near Versailles.

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Mathurin Jacques Brisson