Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7.1 Georges-Louis
Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
(1707-1788) (postage stamp
issued by the French Post
Office, c. 1950).
Angers where he began studies in botany, mathematics and medicine.
Leclerc was a bit of a hothead, and like many young members of the
bourgeoisie of his day elected to settle an argument by way of a duel.
Sometimes such clashes resulted in the death of one combatant, and
often one duellist had to leave the district. And this was Leclerc's fate:
following a duel in October 1730, he removed himself as fast as
possible to Dijon. Here he met the young Duke of Kingston, who had
been sent on a Grand Tour by his family in an attempt to teach him
greater maturity. Leclerc joined him on his travels throughout Europe
and returned to Dijon in 1732. His mother died early that year when he
was 25 years old, and when Georges-Louis discovered that his father,
who was fifty, planned tomarry a women less than half his age he tried
to wrest his inheritance from him. Leclerc's mother had left her son
her family estates but his father had managed them badly and they
were sold. Fortunately for Leclerc fils he was compensated for the loss
