DAVID, ARMAND. - Missionary and naturalist, b. at Espellette (Basses-Pyrénées) on 7 Sept. 1826, d. at Paris on 10 Nov. 1900. Having become a missionary of St Vincent (1848), he was assigned to teaching at the college of Savona, where he began an advanced course in the natural sciences. In 1862 he left for China and remained there until 1874, reconciling the apostolic ministry with the passion of the naturalist. In 12 years he undertook three expeditions, to Mongolia (1866), Tibet (1868-1870), and central-western China (1872).
The results are described in his travel journals and in the reports published by the Museum of Natural History of Paris. His discoveries were important and numerous, several of them bearing his name, especially in the kingdom of birds, which he described in Oiseaux de la Chine (Paris 1876), as well as among invertebrates and plants, which he described in the work, in 2 folio vols., entitled Plantae Davidianae (ibid. 1884). D. organized three natural-history collections, at Peking, Savona, and the mother house of the missionaries in Paris, and enriched the Museum of Natural History of Paris.