Alphonse Péron


Alphonse Péron was a French soldier and amateur naturalist.
He used his spare time to pursue his interest in paleontology, and authored or coauthored several important works on the geology and paleontology of France and Algeria.

Life

Pierre-Alphonse Péron was born on 29 November 1834 in Saint-Fargeau, Yonne.
He attended the Collège d’Auxerre for his secondary education, then in 1853 entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr.
After graduating in 1855 he was posted to a series of different garrisons.
He was assigned to Corsica in 1860, and later transferred to Algeria.
In both places he was able to pursue his growing interest in geology, which absorbed much of his spare time for the rest of his life.
In 1867 he was promoted to captain.
During the Franco-Prussian War Péron was seriously wounded at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870.
After recovering he was posted to Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne, from 1871 to 1875.
He was promoted to sub-intendant in 1875 and moved in turn to Reims, Toul, Joigny, Troyes and then in 1883 to Bourges.
He was sub-intendent from 1875 to 1890, then military intendent from 1890 to 1896.
Alphonse Péron died on 2 April 1908 in Auxerre, Yonne, aged 73.

Geology and paleontology

Péron's interest in geology and paleontology was kindled by fossils that he observed in Corsica in 1860.
In Algeria he studied the geology around Aumale and the Kabylie.
In 1873 Péron contributed to the geological study of Tarn-et-Garonne.
He went on to make observations of the Late Cretaceous formations of Southern France.
Péron joined the first rank of gifted amateur geologists in France in the second half of the 19th century, others being Édouard de Verneuil, Gustave Cotteau, Antoine Passy, Gustave Dollfus and Auguste Viquesnel.
Péron collaborated with Victor-Auguste Gauthier in writing the Description des Echinides fossiles de l'Algérie under the direction of Gustave Cotteau.
This was a significant work, of which the first two chapters were published in the Annales des Sciences géologiques and in the Bibliothèque des Hautes études. They were subsequently revised in 1883–84 to form part of the first volume of this great work.
From 1873 to 1891 Gauthier worked constantly on the descriptions of the Algerian fossil Echinidae for which Peron provided most of the materials, wrote the stratigraphic notes and collaborated with Gauthier on some of the descriptions.
Cotteau retained overall responsibility and his opinion prevailed in questions of interpretations of genera and species and in general classification.
In 1852 the Mines department was charged with drawing a geological map of the three Algerian provinces.
The map of Algiers Province by Ludovic Ville was ready for the Exposition Universelle of 1867, as was the map of Oran Province, and Jules Tissot's map of Constantine Province was exhibited at Vienna in 1873.
New versions of the maps were presented at the Exposition Universelle of 1878.
The idea of a general geological map of Algeria was floated in 1881, when the Association française pour l'avancement des sciences met in Algiers.
Péron's 202-page Essai d'une description géologique de l'Algérie was thus the culmination of thirty years of work.
In 1902 the Ministry of Education proposed that Georges Rolland should write up the results of the Tunisian Scientific Exploration Mission, but he refused for health reasons.
The task was given to Philippe Thomas, who was now in retirement.
He wrote the Essai d'une description géologique de la Tunisie with the support of Jean Albert Gaudry, Alphonse Péron and Paul Bursaux, technical director of the Compagnie des phosphates de Gafsa.
The first part, an Overview of physical geography, was published in 1907.
The second part, Stratigraphy of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic terrains, was published in 1908.
Péron was President of the Société géologique de France in 1905.

Publications

Publications by Alphonse Péron included: