René Lesson

René Primevère Lesson was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist. He was born on March 20, 1794, and passed away on April 28, 1849. Lesson made important contributions to the study of animals, especially birds and reptiles. His work helped scientists understand more about the natural world during his time.

Biography

René Lesson was born in Rochefort and joined the Naval Medical School there at just sixteen. He served in the French Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1811, he worked as a surgeon on the ship Saale, and later moved up to a higher position on the Regulus in 1813.

In 1816, Lesson changed his focus to pharmacy. He joined Duperrey’s world trip on the ship La Coquille from 1822 to 1825. During this trip, he collected many natural history specimens with another surgeon, Prosper Garnot, and an officer named Dumont d'Urville. He was the first naturalist to see birds of paradise in places like the Moluccas and New Guinea.

After returning to Paris, he spent seven years working on a big book about the trip. He also wrote several books about birds, including ones on hummingbirds and birds of paradise. He described many new kinds of frogs and lizards too.

In 1827, he married Clémence Dumont de Sainte-Croix, an artist who helped illustrate his books. Later, he became a teacher of pharmacy and eventually the main naval pharmacist at Rochefort in 1835. He was honored by the Académie de Médecine in 1828 and the Académie des Sciences in 1833. In 1847, he received the Légion d'honneur.

In 1847, he suggested grouping people by skin color into six categories. He is sometimes mixed up with his brother, Pierre Adolphe Lesson, who also sailed on ships with Dumont d'Urville.

Amphibian and reptile species described by Lesson

René Lesson described many interesting animals, including frogs, lizards, and snakes. Some of the animals he discovered include the green and golden bell frog, the Chile four-eyed frog, and the emerald tree skink, among others.

Fish described by Lesson

René Lesson described many interesting fish species during his time. Some of the fish he named include:

• Scarus taeniopterus (Lesson 1829)
• Acanthurus bariene (Lesson 1831)
• Abantennarius coccineus (Lesson 1831)
• Arothron mappa (Lesson 1831)
• Triodon macropterus (Lesson 1829)
• Nebrius ferrugineus (Lesson 1831)
• Scuticaria tigrina (Lesson 1828)

Lesson and the idea that counting in New Zealand proceeded by elevens

After returning from his voyage on the Coquille in 1825, René Lesson wrote about numbers used in New Zealand. He disagreed with a claim that New Zealanders counted using a system based on twenty. Instead, he said their system was based on ten, like ours, but there was a mix-up. The word he used, "undécimal," might have been a printing mistake. It was thought to mean counting by elevens, similar to how we have words for counting by twelves.

Over the next few years, Lesson and his friend Jules de Blosseville spread the idea that New Zealand had a special counting system based on eleven. They shared letters and details, even naming places in New Zealand where they said this system was used. This idea appeared in writings by other scholars who received letters from Lesson and Blosseville.

Taxon named in his honor

Several plants and animals carry René Lesson's name to remember his work. One type of large seaweed called Lessonia comes from the southern Pacific Ocean and was named for him in 1825. Another brown seaweed, Lessoniopsis, was named after him in 1903.

There is also a fish species named Plectorhinchus lessonii.