CHARCOT

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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15.7.1867 Neuilly-sur-Seine/F - 16.9.1936 Sea/IC

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Jean-Baptiste Charcot took an MD at the Faculté de Médicine in 1895, was chief of its neurological clinic and was associated with the Institut Pasteur. He abondended medicine in 1903 for maritime expeditions. From 1903 to 1905 Charcot led an Antarctic expedition on the Français experimental boat that conducted scientific research along the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. From 1908 to 1910 he led an expedition on the Pourquoi pas? that continued research by charting the peninsula; it involved also similar works for the Alexander I Land and the Peter I Island, Antarctica. In 1911 he conducted oceanographic works in the English Channel.

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From 1920 to 1927, Charcot made soundings in various parts of the Atlantic Ocean, including the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Biscany. During his annual expeditions, work was done in hydrography, meteorology, atmospheric electricity and gravitation, thereby creating two new sciences, namely submarine geology and geological oceanography. He was awarded the first Albert I of Monaco Prize from Académie des Sciences, Paris in 1926, to continue this data collection. Between 1926 to 1936 he took part in several expeditions of the Pourquoi pas? to the shores of Greenland. His last voyage, during which the ship foundered on reefs of Iceland and only the master helmsman survived, was to Greenland to locate the Victor mission. Charcot was an Honorary Member of the Geographical Society of the USSR and was awarded the Great Litke Gold Medal in 1914. A cape and a bay in Antarctica have been named for Charcot, as have a mountain and a strait in the Kerguelen Archipelago.

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_{Anonymous (1926). Prix Albert I de Monaco. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris 183: 1222-1224.}

_{Charcot, J.-B. (1906). Journal de l'expédition antarctique française 1903-1905: Le Français au pôle sud. Flammarion: Paris.}

_{Charcot, J.-B., Clerc-Rampal, G. (1909). La navigation mise à la porte de tous: Manuel pratique de navigation estimée et observée. Challamel: Paris.}

_{Charcot, J.-B. (1911). The voyage of the Pourquoi pas?: The journal of the 2nd French South Polar Expedition 1908-1910. Hodder: New York, English version.}

_{Charcot, J.-B. (1929). La mer du Groenland, croisières du Pourquoi pas? Desclée: Paris. Chatelain, Y. (1956). Charcot, Jean-Baptiste. Dictionnaire de biographie française 8: 476-477, M. Prevost, R. d'Amat, eds. Letouzay: Paris.}