Lapparent, Albert-Auguste de

LAPPARENT, ALBERT-AUGUSTE de. - One of the most authoritative French geologists, b. at Bourges on 30 Dec. 1839, d. at Paris on 5 May 1908. He studied at the École des mines, where he graduated in 1864. In 1875 he obtained the chair of geology and mineralogy at the Institut catholique de Paris, then newly founded. President in 1880 of the Geological Society of France, in 1897 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences and in 1907 its secretary, succeeding M. Berthelot.

Notable among his works are: Traité de géologie (Paris 1882), Cours de minéralogie (ibid. 1884), Géographie physique (ibid. 1896), which went through many editions. In scientific study he liked to bring out certain general facts of philosophical importance, especially the order of nature, the principle and the finality of phenomena (Science et philosophie, 2nd ed., Paris 1913, p. 23; cf. pp. 38-39, 115, and Traité de géologie, 2nd ed., ibid. 1885, p. vi).

A deeply committed Catholic, L. developed a scientific apologetics: science, rightly understood, leads to Christian Revelation (cf. Science et apologétique, ibid. 1905). Nature is the work of God, and Revelation has nothing to fear from the sciences; on the contrary, they confirm Revelation (Science et philosophie, pp. 45-46). In particular, L. brings out, in the history of the formation of the earth, Providence, which prepares the conditions suited to man's life and to the development of civilization (cf. La Providence créatrice, Paris 1907, p. 63).

Roberto Masi