Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier de la (1827-1903)
Geologist, mineralogist en stratigrapher, born in Namur on 6 April 1827 and died in Brussels on 15 March 1903. Father of Charles Jean de la Vallée Poussin.
Biography
Charles Louis Joseph Xavier de la Vallée Poussin was born in Namur on 6 April 1827, the son of a French military man who had married a Belgian woman and had emigrated to Belgium. He received his secondary education in his native town at the College Notre Dame de la Paix.[1]
He then went on to study mathematics at the École Polytechnique in Paris. Here he also studied literature and philosophy in addition to mathematics.[2]
At the instigation of d'Omalius d'Halloy, de La Vallée Poussin was appointed extraordinary professor at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1863.
It was only after meeting d'Omalius d'Halloy that he, despite his strong preference for philosophy and literature, would enthusiastically devote himself to the mineral sciences. His appointment to the University of Leuven marked the beginning of a fruitful career that would not end until his death.[3] He taught geology and mineralogy for 40 years.[4]
Gradually, he delegated some of his powers to his colleagues and, from 1895, he entrusted the teaching of stratigraphic palaeontology to Canon Henry de Dorlodot.[5]
De la Vallée Poussin married Euphémie-Louise-Marie-Pharaïlde de Monge. Their son Charles-Jean Gustave Nicolas baron de la Vallée Poussin became a famous mathematician. His wife died on 28 September 1898.[6]
On 15 December 1883 he became a corresponding member of the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique .
He passed away in Brussels on 15 March 1903.
Work
De la Vallée Poussin studied the geology of the Belgian and French Ardennes, focussing on the stratigraphy of the Carboniferous limestone layers found in the area. In addition, he did research on geomorphology, studying the formation of the valley of the river Meuse in the Ardennes.
Together with Alphonse-François Renard, he described the petrography of the metamorphic rocks of the crystalline massifs of the Ardennes.[7]
They worked together for 25 years and published, among others, the important work Sur les caractères minéralogiques et stratigraphiques des roches dites plutoniennes de la Belgique et de l'Ardenne française. This publication was awarded a prize by the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Together with Renard, he also wrote a petrographic work, Les tufs kératophyriques de la Méhaigne.[8]
De la Vallée Poussin was a member of the commission of the geological map of Belgium. He actively collaborated to the geological map of this commission on a scale of 1/40.000.[9]
He very quickly recognised the importance of the new technique of petrographic thin sections, which he successfully applied in his study of the eruptive rocks of Belgium, opening a new and successful research programme that is still used in petrography to this day. Because of his insight he also came to understand the problems caused by the classification of Edouard Dupont's Dinantian limestones and recognised the real nature of the special facies of the Tournaisian and the Visean. As a general geologist, he took an early interest in the emerging field of physical geography and proposed a relevant model of the erosional history of the Meuse Valley.[10]
History of science
De La Vallée Poussin wrote several biographies of historical figures from the history of geology: Barrande et sa carrière scientifique, James Hutton et la géologie de notre temps.
He also published on the relationship between religion and science, such as in Deux apologies chrétiennes.[11]
Publications
- A list with publications can be found in: Malaise, Constantin, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in: Annuaire ARB, 1904, p. 77-84.
Bibliography
- Malaise, Constantin, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Annuaire ARB, jaargang 1904, p. 57-76.
- Stockmans, François, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Biographie Nationale, vol. 32, kol. 701-703.
Notes
- ↑ Stockmans, François, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Biographie Nationale, vol. 32, kol. 701.
- ↑ Malaise, Constantin, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Annuaire ARB, 1904, p. 58.
- ↑ GROESSENS, Éric, GROESSENS-VAN DYCK, Marie-Claire, "De geologie", in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, p. 285-286.
- ↑ Stockmans, François, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Biographie Nationale, vol. 32, kol. 701.
- ↑ GROESSENS, Éric, GROESSENS-VAN DYCK, Marie-Claire, "De geologie", in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, p. 285-286.
- ↑ Malaise, Constantin, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Annuaire ARB, jaargang 1904, p. 60.
- ↑ " De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in: Personenencyclopedie, geconsulteerd op 14/02/2012 om 11u.
- ↑ Stockmans, François, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Biographie Nationale, vol. 32, kol. 702.
- ↑ Stockmans, François, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Biographie Nationale, vol. 32, kol. 701.
- ↑ GROESSENS, Éric, GROESSENS-VAN DYCK, Marie-Claire, "De geologie", in Robert Halleux, Geert Vanpaemel, Jan Vandersmissen en Andrée Despy-Meyer (red.), Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België 1815-2000, Brussel: Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, vol. 1, p. 285-286.
- ↑ Stockmans, François, "De la Vallée Poussin, Charles Louis Joseph Xavier", in : Biographie Nationale, vol. 32, kol. 703.
