Joseph Paul Gaimard

Joseph Paul Gaimard (31 January 1796 – 10 December 1858) was a French naval surgeon and naturalist.

Biography

Gaimard was born at Saint-Zacharie on January 31, 1793. He studied medicine at the naval medical school in Toulon, subsequently earning his qualifications as a naval surgeon. Along with Jean René Constant Quoy, he served as naturalist on the ships L'Uranie under Louis de Freycinet 1817-1820, and L'Astrolabe under Jules Dumont d'Urville 1826-1829. During this voyage they discovered the now extinct giant skink of Tonga, Tachygia microlepis.

From his studies of cholera in Europe, he co-authored Du choléra-morbus en Russie, en Prusse et en Autriche, pendant les années 1831-1832 (Cholera morbus in Russia, Prussia and Austria in the years 1831 & 1832).

He was the scientific leader on La Recherche (1835–1836) during its expedition to the Arctic Sea, making voyages to coastal Iceland and Greenland — from 27 April to 13 September 1835 and from 21 May to 26 September 1836. Along with exploratory and scientific goals, the crew of the expedition was tasked with searching for Jules de Blosseville, who disappeared aboard the Lilloise in Arctic waters a few years earlier. Out of these trips came the 9-volume Voyage en Islande et au Groënland (8 text volumes, one of geographical illustrations), which was said at the time to be the definitive study of the islands.