Gustave Cotteau

17 December 1818 - 10 August 1894
     (Dujardin rotogravure)

It was with deep sadness that the scholarly world learned of Gustave Cotteau's death on 10 August 1894. Gifted with a robust constitution, he was still full of life, despite his 75 years of age, when an illness as unforeseen as it was rapid in its effects laid him in the grave for ever. In a few minutes he had been struck down. Over his coffin, friendly voices recounted his noble life, full of honour and work. His native town, Auxerre, gave him a splendid funeral, and, if we are to believe the undoubted testimony of the local press, his unexpected end aroused unanimous regret in the population. Welcoming and kind, generous, a tireless worker, he had won the affection of all his fellow citizens. His life had been an example; his death was a public mourning.
 

Gustave Cotteau was a corresponding member of our Society since 1 September 1858. You have entrusted me with the mission of recounting to you in a few lines the main features of this life so laboriously employed for the greatest benefit of science. I am pleased with the choice you have made in appointing me, for I feel that it is a great honour for me to have to speak to you about a man so universally loved and esteemed, a scientist whose considerable work has cast such a bright light on French science. Unfortunately, I did not have the good fortune to know M. Cotteau personally. However, I have a distant memory of having seen him, in 1878, during an excursion to Grignon, organised by the French Association for the Advancement of Science, at the time of the 1st Paris Congress. He was there, surrounded by friends and high scientific personalities. I had to stand modestly aside; but, as his name was well known to me, I listened avidly to his words and was able to appreciate the finesse of his mind and the charm of his conversation, during the brief moments I spent in his company. It was a pleasant memory. And later, when he undertook the publication of the Eocene Echinids in the "Paléontologie française", it was with real happiness that I communicated to him, at his request, all the Echinids that I had collected in the South-West. From that moment on, relations were established between us by correspondence, and it was from that moment on that I was able to appreciate to their true value both the personal qualities of the man of the world and those of the scholar whom we had the great honour of counting among our corresponding members.
 

It is from this double point of view that I want to speak to you about G. Cotteau, not knowing too well what is to be praised more in him or the qualities of his heart, his urbanity, his inexhaustible complacency, or the happy gifts of his mind, the vivacity of his intelligence, his power of work.Gustave Cotteau était né à Auxerre le 17 décembre 1818. Au collège d'Auxerre, il se prépara par de fortes études à la lutte pour la vie, et, comme ses parents le destinaient à la magistrature, il le firent inscrire comme étudiant à la Faculté de droit de Paris. C'est, dès cette époque, que Gustave Cotteau se sentit entrainé par ses goûts vers l'étude de l'histoire naturelle, et surtout vers la Géologie et la Paléontologie. Dès l'année 1839, avant même d'avoir conquis le grade de licencié en droit, il était reçu membre de la Société géologique de France. Là, il se trouva en contact avec des savants tels que Constant Prévost, Elie de Beaumont, Brongniart, Alcide d'Orbigny, d'Archiac, qui exercèrent sur le jeune néophyte l'influence de leur grand talent. il sentit la nécessité d'étudier pour comprendre les discussions scientifiques auxquelles se livraient devant lui les grands maîtres que j'ai nommés ; et, c'est ainsi que peu à peu il se préparait à devenir à son tour l'un des chers de la science à laquelle il s'était voué.

However, he had not neglected his legal studies. In 1840, he received a licentiate and, in 1846, was appointed substitute judge at the court of Auxerre. Later, he was appointed judge at the court of Coulommiers, and in 1862, judge at Auxerre. He retained these functions until 1872, when he resigned to devote himself exclusively to science. He remained attached to the judiciary only by the ties of honorary status.
 

This was not his true vocation. In the years preceding his entry into the judiciary and in those following it, he had devoted himself ardently to the geological study of the department of the Yonne, both from the stratigraphic and the palaeontological point of view, collecting from that time the numerous materials which later enabled him to write the important memoirs he was to publish on this department. It is from this period that his first publications date, which had as their object the study of the Oxfordian strata in the vicinity of Chatel-Censoir (1884) and of the position that the Aptian terrain of the Yonne occupies in the Cretaceous series (1844). In 1847, he published in the Bulletin de la Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l'Yonne, which had just been created and of which he was a founding member, first an "Overview of the geology of the Yonne department", then a "Note on the Dysaster Michelini".
 

With this last work, he began the study of Echinology, to which he would henceforth devote almost all the forces of his intelligence and the best part of his remarkable working power. From then on, there followed, almost without interruption, those memoirs, so numerous and so conscientiously written, which had as their object the study of Echinids and which were to raise around his name such a just notoriety. The first important work he published was his "Etudes sur les Echinides fossiles du département de l'Yonne", the first volume of which appeared in 1856, a work which was soon followed (1857) by the publication of "Echinides du département de la Sarthe, considérés au point de vue zoologique et stratigraphique", in collaboration with M. Triger. An atlas of 75 plates accompanied this last memoir. G. Cotteau had prepared and written the whole palaeontological part of it, leaving the stratigraphical part of the work to his collaborator.
 

In a biographical note read before the Geological Society of France and the Society of Historical and Natural Sciences of the Yonne, Mr. A. Péron, a friend of G. Cotteau, who knew how to find warm and eloquent accents to describe his life, says that these first works were enough to establish, from that moment, the reputation of G. Cotteau as an echinologist. He adds that, as early as 1853, Desor wrote to him: "ce n'est certes pas une flatterie de vous dire que pour s'occuper d'une manière sérieuse et avec fruit de l'étude des oursins, il est indispensable de vous connaître et de vous étudier. Voici bien des mois que votre ouvrage est sur ma table, à côté de moi, en compagnie de ceux de MM. Forbes, Gras, Quenstedt, etc., et il ne se passe pas de jour que je ne vous consulte".

This reputation was in fact so well won by this time that, a few years later, when Alcide d'Orbigny died, the publisher m. Masson, who had acquired the "French Palaeontology", charged G. Cotteau to complete the volume of irregular Cretaceous Echinids, whose publication had been interrupted by the death of Alcide d'Orbigny. It was also at this time that G. Cotteau was asked to join the committee of specialists, all members of the Geological Society of France, which was set up to continue d'Orbigny's work. If this was a great honour for him, it was above all a precious tribute to his high erudition.
 

The years that followed were for our colleague those of the most assiduous labour, of the most tenacious perseverance in the accomplishment of the work he had undertaken. Without forgetting his duties as a magistrate, without neglecting the numerous scientific societies to which he belonged and to which he always had a few notes or memoirs to send, he courageously tackled the hard work that had been entrusted to him and he contributed in large part to the building of this glorious scientific monument for our country which has been called "French Palaeontology".
 

After completing the publication of the Irregular Cretaceous Echinids (01859), he published, from 1862 to 1867, the Regular Cretaceous Echinids in one volume, with an atlas of 200 plates; then, from 1867 to 1885, the Regular and Irregular Jurassic Echinids, in 3 volumes, with 518 plates; and, finally, from 1885 to 1894, the Eocene Echinids, in two volumes of text, with an atlas of 384 plates.
 

To complete this colossal monograph, only the Miocene and Pliocene Echinids remained to be published. Despite the weight of years, G. Cotteau felt courageous enough to bring this crowning achievement to his work. His green old age seemed to promise him many more days. He had resolutely set to work. From all parts of France, he had received from his correspondents the documents necessary for his undertaking, notes had been collected, the first issue was composed and printed in proofs, the plates were prepared, but death came to stop this tireless worker in his work!

Alas, why did Providence not want him to have the time to complete this immense monograph which will nevertheless remain, however incomplete it may be, one of the most eminent productions of French science. It honours our country, but above all it honours its author. He devoted more than thirty years of his life to it.
 

It is his capital work, the one that most vigorously attests to the strength of his intelligence, the tenacity of his work, the sagacity of his mind. As for his practical results, in noting them, it has been said with reason that "the class of Echinids, one of the most ignored until then, is at present one of the best known and one of those which render the most services to geology.
 

However, do not believe that, in spite of the patient research that such a work required, in spite of the slowness of its preparation and the difficulties of its execution, G. Cotteau sacrificed all his time to it. His incessant activity was enough for everything. As a member of more than 20 learned societies, he still found the necessary leisure to write other memoirs that he addressed to them; to attend, every year, the great scientific meetings in France and abroad, in particular the Congresses of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was the soul in the geology section; to write clearly written reports in a lively style, the reports of these Congresses which he read each year before the Society of Historical and Natural Sciences of the Yonne; to undertake also great journeys through all the capitals of Europe, to visit the museums, to bring back notes and documents of which his happy activity knew how to find the use.
 

I cannot cite all of G. Cotteau's works in this short notice. If you are curious to read the titles, you can find them in a "Notice sur les travaux scientifiques de M. Cotteau" which he himself wrote, and of which he paid tribute to our library a few years ago. You will also find them quoted even more completely in the biographical Notice of Mr. A. Péron, published in the Bulletin de la Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l'Yonne (1st semester 1895) which our library also possesses. Their enumeration does not contain less than 168 numbers.

To give you an idea of this immense work and of the high value of G. Cotteau's work, allow me to quote a passage from a report that Mr. Albert Gaudry addressed to the Academy of Sciences on 23 February 1884. On this report, the Academy confirmed the choice of its commissioners, Messrs Hébert, de Quatrefages, H. Milne-Edwards, A. Gaudry, and awarded G. Cotteau the Vaillant Prize. Cotteau, the Vaillant prize: "Although palaeontology," said the rapporteur, "is a very new science, the multitude of fossil beings currently discovered is beginning to be so great that it is difficult for one man to cover the whole. Palaeontologists are obliged to become specialists; they choose either a fraction of geological time or a group of the animal world. M. G. Cotteau has attached himself to the group of Echinoderms and has acquired in the study of these animals a skill universally recognized. Our Swedish correspondent, M. Lovén, who is the highest authority on questions relating to the Echinoderms, has just written these words in his memoir On Pourtalesia: "The works of M. Cotteau, in French Palaeontology and elsewhere, are all models of research and elucidation which have not been surpassed. M. Cotteau has published two volumes on the Echinids of the Sarthe, a volume on the Echinids of south-western France, two volumes on the Echinids of Algeria (in collaboration with MM. Péron and Gauthier), several volumes in French Paleontology, memoirs on the fossil Echinids of Belgium, the Yonne, Normandy, Cuba, the Barthélemy and Anguilla Islands (Antilles), Stramberg (Karpathian Mountains), etc. He has published more than a thousand plates of the Echinids of the Sarthe, the Sarthe, the Sarthe, the Sarthe, the Sarthe, the Sarthe, the Sarthe and the Sarthe. He published more than a thousand plates of Echinoderms with an average of at least twelve figures, which makes a total of twelve thousand figures; this represents an immense work. He described a multitude of fossil forms which were unknown before him, in particular the curious Tetracidaris, which, by its interambulacres composed of four rows of plates, recalls, even in the Lower Cretaceous, the conformation of the primary palaechinids. As the skeleton of the Echinoderms is complicated and well defined, it offers excellent characters to distinguish the fossil species: thus the species of Cidaris, Salenia, Disaster, Micraster, Hemiaster, Echinobrissus, and many other Echinoderms, occupy an important place among the characteristic fossils of the geological stages. It follows that the publications of M. Cotteau are of great use for stratigraphy. The services that this palaeontologist has rendered for thirty years have earned him the esteem and recognition of all geologists.
 

The commission of the Vaillant prize is unanimous in awarding a first prize of 2,500 francs to M. G. Cotteau".
 

We may add that G. Cotteau has also published, in addition to the annual fascicles on new or little-known sea urchins, special monographs on the sea urchins of the Aube, Haute-Marne, Haute-Saône, Bouches-du-Rhône, Ardèche, Lorraine, Corbières, Pyrenees, Corsica, etc., etc. Among these monographs, there is one that I quote especially, it is the "Description de quelques Echinides tertiaires des environs de Bordeaux" published in the XXVIIth vol. of our Proceedings and accompanied by two plates. In this Note, G. Cotteau has described and figured six species of rare Echinoderms, one from the Eocene limestone of Blaye, the other five from the asteriated limestone.
 

G. Cotteau's work was therefore immense and it is with good reason that, by awarding him the Vaillant prize, the Académie des Sciences rewarded a lifetime of work and dedication to science. G. Cotteau has also received many honours and marks of esteem. Cotteau. And, as his friend M. Péron rightly said: "If he has worked a lot, he has also known the joys of success and the happiness of seeing the product of his work appreciated at its true value.
 

In 1858, he was appointed correspondent of the Ministry of Public Instruction.
 

At the meetings of the delegates of the learned societies, at the Sorbonne, he obtained: in 1861, a bronze medal; in 1863, a silver medal; in 1867, a gold medal.
 

In 1864, he was named Officer of the Academy; in 1876, Officer of Public Instruction.
 

In 1869, he was made a knight of the Legion of Honour and, in 1882, appointed curator of the Musée de la ville d'Auxerre.
 

In 1885, he was awarded a medal of honour by the Société libre pour le développement de l'instruction et de l'éducation populaire, for his work in anthropology and archaeology, since geology and palaeontology did not absorb him exclusively. His enormous activity was spent on all kinds of work and he loved all sciences.
 

In 1887, the Academy of Sciences had appointed him a corresponding member for the section of anatomy and zoology; in 1891, he had been elected, in replacement of Hébert, a foreign member of the Geological Society of London, a much sought-after and seldom obtained honour; in 1893, the Academy of Dijon had awarded him a gold medal, the highest award it could have had.
 

He had the honour of being appointed twice, in 1874 and in 1886, president of the Geological Society of France, of which he was a member for more than 54 years; he was also president of the Zoological Society of France for the year 1889; finally, he presided, from 1883 until his death, over the Society of Historical and Natural Sciences of the Yonne, for which he reserved the best part of his activity and his devotion.All his memoirs are written with clarity, precision and method: In all my work on the Echinids," he said, "I have constantly been concerned, first, to make the species well known by a complete synonymy, by a detailed description and by figures reproducing, with more or less strong magnifications, all the essential organs, then to determine the stratigraphic position of the species and the localities where it has been encountered; I have always sought with the greatest care to determine whether it can be considered characteristic, that is, whether it is confined to its own horizon, or whether it crosses its limits. Better than other animals, whose debris can be found in the soil layers, the Echinids lend themselves to this double kind of study. Their test is not only, as in the case of molluscs, a simple envelope. As has long been noted, it is a veritable skeleton on the surface of which are reproduced, with the most complicated details, the principal organs of the animal: the ocellar and oviductal plates, the ambulacral pores, the peristome, the periprotect, always so varied in their arrangement and structure, are nothing other than the external manifestation of the organs of sight, generation, respiration, nutrition, and digestion.
 

It is through the careful and meticulous study of all these characteristics that G. Cotteau became one of the most appreciated masters of Echinology. It is to the scrupulous method he followed that all his works owe their unquestionable authority.
 

This is what the scholar was. To complete this Notice, it remains for me to say a few words about the man.
 

G. Cotteau was one of those who, gifted with happy faculties, attract and retain. In the course of his life, he was able to form solid friendships; all those who had the good fortune to approach him devoted their affection and esteem to him. Favoured by fortune, he was kind and generous to the poor, full of kindness and benevolence to all those whom circumstances brought into contact with him. His indulgence was inexhaustible; it was widely spent. Never was there a vain appeal to his enlightenment, and I am not sure what was more remarkable in him: the sureness and precision of his scientific mind, his enthusiasm and devotion to science, or his profound honesty, his ability to understand and understand the world, his ability to understand and understand the world, his ability to understand and understand the world.
 

I am not sure what was more remarkable in him: the sureness and precision of his scientific mind, his enthusiasm and dedication to science, or his deep honesty, his affable and easy-going character, his constant good humour. According to those who lived in his intimacy, he was a charming physiognomy, full of attraction and seduction. His speech was easy, his elocution persuasive, his pen alert and quick.
 

He had assembled rich and valuable collections of all kinds: of geology, palaeontology, archaeology and ceramics. The collection of living and fossil echinoderms is unique in the world: it contains no less than ten thousand specimens. We should be pleased that, in his concern for the interests of science, he had the idea of bequeathing it to the Ecole des Mines where it will be preciously preserved.
 

The death of G. Cotteau leaves a great void, but his work will remain imperishable. It will keep his name from being forgotten. It will be said of the scientist that his life of work was an example and that his work constitutes one of the most precious monuments of French science. And of the man it will be said that he was one of the highest, most attractive, most amiable personalities whose memory can be preserved!