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La Condamine
Aug. 3rd, 2021 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mildred_of_midgardCharles Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774). French mathematician, natural philosopher, and explorer.
Remember when Voltaire gamed the lottery system and got filthy rich? Condamine was his partner. Per Davidson, the one who came up with the idea.
Remember when Maupertuis led an expedition to Lapland (the one Algarotti got invited on)? The goal of this was to measure the shape of the earth, whether it was flattened or elongated at the poles. Well, this only works if someone is also taking measurements at the equator. That someone was Condamine, leader of the expedition to Peru (now Ecuador), where they spent ten years and did a lot more than take measurements.
While there, he collected samples of rubber to introduce to Europe for the first time. He also collected cinchona bark, from which the anti-malarial quinine is made. It was known but rare at the time in Europe. I note that Fritz is chatting with Voltaire and Wilhelmine about quinine already during his 1740 malaria attack, and the equatorial expedition was only 1735-1745. (Maupertuis went to Lapland in 1736.)
Remember when Voltaire was researching how to go about getting a papal dispensation to marry your niece, and comparing how much people he knew had paid for the privilege? Condamine is listed by biographers as one of the notable contemporary examples who had married his.
Condamine gets passing mention in the Diderot bio as a salon attendee, but Wikipedia tells me he also contributed articles on the New World to the Encyclopedia.
He met Wilhelmine in Avignon, on their respective journeys to Italy, and shows up in her correspondence as one of her companions in Naples. La Condamine and I crawled on all fours inside [the Roman underground cisterns] and climbed back on ladders. In short, we are now rendered immortal by our research and have called this our descent into the underworld.
Finally, Wikipedia tells me that as a good philosophe, he was an advocate for inoculation.
Remember when Voltaire gamed the lottery system and got filthy rich? Condamine was his partner. Per Davidson, the one who came up with the idea.
Remember when Maupertuis led an expedition to Lapland (the one Algarotti got invited on)? The goal of this was to measure the shape of the earth, whether it was flattened or elongated at the poles. Well, this only works if someone is also taking measurements at the equator. That someone was Condamine, leader of the expedition to Peru (now Ecuador), where they spent ten years and did a lot more than take measurements.
While there, he collected samples of rubber to introduce to Europe for the first time. He also collected cinchona bark, from which the anti-malarial quinine is made. It was known but rare at the time in Europe. I note that Fritz is chatting with Voltaire and Wilhelmine about quinine already during his 1740 malaria attack, and the equatorial expedition was only 1735-1745. (Maupertuis went to Lapland in 1736.)
Remember when Voltaire was researching how to go about getting a papal dispensation to marry your niece, and comparing how much people he knew had paid for the privilege? Condamine is listed by biographers as one of the notable contemporary examples who had married his.
Condamine gets passing mention in the Diderot bio as a salon attendee, but Wikipedia tells me he also contributed articles on the New World to the Encyclopedia.
He met Wilhelmine in Avignon, on their respective journeys to Italy, and shows up in her correspondence as one of her companions in Naples. La Condamine and I crawled on all fours inside [the Roman underground cisterns] and climbed back on ladders. In short, we are now rendered immortal by our research and have called this our descent into the underworld.
Finally, Wikipedia tells me that as a good philosophe, he was an advocate for inoculation.
