Philippe-Charles Schmerling
Encyclopedia
Philippe-Charles Schmerling (Delft
Delft
Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

, 2 March 1790 or 24 February 1791, Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

 7 November 1836) is a Belgian prehistorian
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

, pioneer in paleontology, paleoanthropology, paleopathology and geologist. He is often considered the founder of paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...

.

In 1829 he discovered a Neanderthal fossil, the partial cranium of a small child. It was the first discovery of a fossil man.

Life

Schmerling was a son of a Protestant trader of Viennese
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 origin. Schmerling studied in Delft
Delft
Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

 and Leiden. Afterwards he served in the army between 1812 and 1816. He married in 1821 with Elizabeth de Douglas, who had two daughters, in 1823 and 1825.

Schmerling continued his studies in 1822 and became Doctor of Medicine in 1825, his doctor dissertation was on the subject De studii psychologiae in medicina utilitate et necessitate.

In 1829 he excavated a fossil man in a cave at Les Awirs
Awirs
Awirs is a subdivision of the municipality of Flémalle in the province of Liège in Belgium. The population on December 31, 2004 was 2,869.A notable building is the 18th century Château d'Aigremont....

, in the region of Flémalle
Flémalle
Flémalle is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Liége. On January 1, 2006 Flémalle had a total population of 25,140. The total area is 36.68 km² which gives a population density of 685 inhabitants per km².-Subdivisions:...

, in the Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

 valley, between Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

 and Huy
Huy
Huy is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia, home to about two-thirds of the Walloon population...

. Schmerling investigated about sixty calcareous caves of the provinces of Liège and Luxembourg during the following years.

Works

  • , Liège, 1825 ;
  • « Cavernes à ossemens fossiles, découvertes jusqu’à ce jour dans la province de Liège » dans Philippe Vandermaelen, Dictionnaire géographique de la province de Liège, Bruxelles, Établissement géographique, 1831, p. 3-7 des annexes;
  • Quelques observations sur la teinture de colchique et principalement sur son emploi dans les affections arthritiques et rhumatismales, Liège, P.J. Collardin, 1832;
  • « Sur une caverne à ossemens de la province de Liége » dans le Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, t. III, 1833, p. 217-222;
  • « » dans , 1, 1833, p. 38-48;
  • Recherches sur les ossements fossiles découverts dans les cavernes de la Province de Liège, Liège, P.J. Collardin, 1833-1834 ;
  • « Renseignements sur la caverne à ossements dite le trou de Hogheur, dans le Luxembourg » dans le Bulletin de l’Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Belgique, t. II, 1835, p. 271-275;
  • « Mémoire sur les ossemens fossiles à l'état pathologique, recueillis dans les cavernes de la province de Liège » dans Bulletins de l'Académie royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles, t. 2, 1835, p. 362-364;
  • « Description des ossemens fossiles à l'état pathologique, provenant des cavernes de la province de Liége » dans Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, t. 7, 1835, p. 51-61;
  • « Notice sur quelques os de pachydermes découverts dans le terrain meuble près du village de Chokier » dans le Bulletin de l’Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Belgique, t. III, 1836, p. 82.

External links

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