The Conant's Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum conanti) is a Mexican species of Milk snake named after Roger Conant. The Conant's Milk Snake is distinguished by its dorsal pattern of small black rings, spaced far apart. The Conant's Milk Snake occurs mainly in the Sierre Madre del Sur and parts of Oaxaca in Mexico. Research Conant's Milk Snake
Adrien Balbi was a Venetian geographer and statistician. He was born in 1782 at Venice and died in 1848. In 1808 his first work on geography procured his appointment as professor of geography in the College of San Michele at Murano, and he became in 1811 professor of natural philosophy in the Lyceum at Fermo. In 1820 he proceeded to Portugal, and collected there materials for his Essai Statistique sur Le Boyaume de Portugal et d'Algarve and Varietes Politiques et Statistiques de la Monarchic Portugaise, both published in 1822 at Paris, where he resided until 1832. He then settled in Padua, where he died in 1848. Balbi's admirable Abrege de Geographie was written at Paris, and translated into the principal European languages. Research Adrien Balbi
Alain-Rene Lesarge was a French author. He was born in 1668 at Sarzeau and died in 1747. He went to Paris, studied law, and became a member of the bar. In 1743 he retired to Boulogne-sur-mer. Lesage may be called the first French 'man of letter'. He resembled the writers of the 17th century, with whom he had much more in common than with Voltaire and his set. Research Alain-Rene Lesarge
Alexis Claude Clairaut was a French mathematician. He was born in 1713 at Paris and died in 1765. In his eleventh year he composed a treatise on the four curves of the third order, which, with his subsequent Recherches sur les Courbes a double Courbure, 1731, procured him a seat in the Academy at the age of eighteen. He accompanied Maupertuis to Lapland, to assist in measuring an arc of the meridian, and obtained the materials for his work Sur la Figure de la Terre. In 1752 he published his Theorie de la Lune, and in 1759 calculated the perihelion of Halley's comet. Research Alexis Clairaut
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was born in 1840 at Nimes and died in 1897. He settled in Paris in 1857, and wrote poems, essays, plays, etc, without much success, until he discovered his powers as a novelist, when he speedily became famous. His best works include Fromont jeune et Risler Aine (1874); Jack (1876); Le Nabab (1877); Les Rois en Exil (1879); Numa Roumestan (1881); L'Evangeliste (1882); Sappho (1884); Tartarin sur les Alpes (1886), a sequel to Les Aventures Prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon (1874); Trente Ans a Paris (autobiographical), 1888; Port Tarascon, dernieres Aventures d'lllustre Tartarin (1890); Rose et Ninette (1892). His chief works have been translated into English. Research Alphonse Daudet
Augustin Calmet was a French exegetical and historical writer. He was born in 1672 at Lorraine and died in 1757. He early entered the order of St Benedict, and became the head of several abbeys in succession. He was an industrious compiler of voluminous works, such as Commentaire sur tous les Livres de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament (Paris, 1707-16), Dictionnaire Historique et Critique de la Bible, Histoire Ecclesiastique et Civile de la Lorraine, etc. Research Augustin Calmet
Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg was a French writer on American history, archaeology, and ethnology. He was born in 1814 and died in 1874. He entered the priesthood, was sent to North America by the Propaganda, and lived and travelled here and in Central America for a number of years, partly in the performance of ecclesiastical functions. Among his works are Histoire du Canada (1851), Histoire des Nations civilisees du Mexique et de l'Amerique Centrale (1857-58), Gramatica de la LenguaQuiche (1862), Monuments anciens du Mexique (1864-66), etudes sur le Systeme graphique et la Langue des Mayas (1869-70), etc. Research Charles Brasseur de Bourbourg
Charles Pinot Duclos was a French novelist, writer of memoirs, and grammarian. He was born in 1704 at Dinant and died in 1772. He became secretary of the French Academy, and on the resignation of Voltaire he was appointed to the office of historiographer of France. His writings are lively and satirical. Among the best are Confessions du Comte de B (1741); Considerations sur les Moeurs de ce Siecle; Memoires secrets sur les Regnes de Louis XIV et XV; and Remarques sur la Grammaire generale de Port-Royal. Research Charles Duclos
Marc Pierre De Voyer, the Comte D'Argenson, was a French statesman. He was born in 1696 and died in 1764. After holding a number of subordinate offices he became minister for foreign affairs, and succeeded in bringing about the Congress of Breda, which was the prelude to that of Aix-la-Chapelle. He was present at the Battle of Fontenoy, and was exiled to his estate for some years through the machinations of Madame De Pompadour. His Considerations sur le Gouvernement de la France, was a very advanced study on the possibility of combining with a monarchic form of government democratic principles and local self-government. Les Essais, ou Loisirs d'un Ministre d'Etat, published in 1785, is a collection of characters and anecdotes in the style of Montaigne. Research Comte D'Argenson
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, novelist, playwright, encyclopaedist and critic. He was born in 1713 at Langres in Champagne and died in 1784.
Educated in the school of the Jesuits, and afterwards at Paris, at the College of Harcourt, his first works were the Essai sur le Merite et la Vertu (1745); and the Pensees Philosophiques (1746), a pamphlet against the Christian religion. His Lettre sur les Aveugles a l'Usage de Ceux qui Voyent, is in the same strain. These heterodox publications cost him an imprisonment for some time at Vincennes. Denis Diderot now tried writing for the stage, but his pieces were failures. In 1749 he had begun along with D'Alembert and some others the Encyclopedia. At first it was intended to be mainly a translation of one already published in English by Chambers. Denis Diderot and D'Alembert, however, enlarged upon this project, and made the new Encyclopaedia a magnificently comprehensive and bold account of all the thought and science of the time. Denis Diderot, besides revising the whole, undertook at first the mechanical arts, and subsequently made contributions in history, philosophy, and art criticism. But the profits of all his labour were small, and it was only the liberality of the Russian EmpressCatharine, who purchased his library for 50,000 livres and made him a yearly allowance of 1000 livres, that saved Denis Diderot from destitution.
In 1773 he visited St Petersburg to thank his benefactress and was received with great honour. On his return to France he lived in retirement, and died in 1784. Besides his articles in the Encyclopedia he wrote numerous works, some of which were published after his death. Among the best known are Le Neveu de Eameau, a kind of philosophical dialogue which Johann Goethe thought worthy of translation; Essai sur la Peinture, and Paradoxe sur le Comedien, suggestive essays on the principles of painting and acting; two lively tales, La Religieuse and Jacques le Fataliste. Research Denis Diderot
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Abbreviations
Research Conant's Milk Snake
