Buffon

Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707-1788), was perhaps the most important of Charles Darwin's predecessors, Director of the Royal Botanical Garden, and certainly the premier French scientist of the Enlightenment. Buffon conducted experiments investigating a broad range of questions, from the burning effects of the sun's rays to the tensile strength of timber. His studies of plant life led to his creation of a renowned nursery, his zoological interests to his development of an aviary and menagerie. His massive, thirty-six-volume System of Nature was the most widely collected work of…