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RAUCH (François Antoine). Régénération de la nature végétale…
See original version (French)
RAUCH (François Antoine). Régénération de la nature végétale…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 85
RAUCH (François Antoine).
Régénération de la nature végétale, ou recherches sur les moyens de recréer, dans tous les climats, les anciennes températures et l'ordre primitif des saisons, par des plantations raisonnées, appuyées de quelques vues sur le ministère que la puissance végétale semble avoir à remplir dans l'harmonie des éléments.
Paris: imprimerie de P. Didot l'aîné, 1818. - 2 volumes in-8, 213 x 166: xxxi pp, (2 ff.), 502 pp, illustrated cover; 398 pp, illustrated cover. Paperback, untrimmed.
Second edition, entirely revised and enlarged thanks to new observations, of the Harmonie hydro-végétale et météorologique which the author first published in 1802.
François Antoine Rauch (1762-1837), a Ponts-et-Chaussées engineer, is regarded as the founding father of ecological thinking in France. As early as 1802, he was already denouncing the harmful effects of deforestation in Asia, Africa and Europe; in this 1818 edition, he also includes America. He warned against imprudent land clearance in France, which was causing landslides, gullies and desertification. He praised the protective forests of Switzerland, as well as the wooded countryside of Germany and England, insisting on the need to restore mountain forests: "Since time is so slow to reproduce what man has destroyed in an instant (...) let us be docile to the voice of misfortune which cries out to us to replant our ancient mountains with celerity".
Interested in the progress of agriculture, he admired the natural balance in which every living thing plays an essential role: in his opinion, birds and anteaters are more effective and healthier than "drugs" against insects, while wolves and birds of prey rid the land of carrion. He is convinced that respect for nature can generate economic benefits, but deplores the fact that none of the many existing schools is devoted to "everything to do with vegetation". Finally, he implored the monarch's benevolence to "revive and rejuvenate this ancient France, mutilated in its climate, its attractions and its productions." (II, page 364).
A paperback copy, as issued, with full margins and largely uncut. The front cover has an attractive typographical border.
Scattered foxing. Some light spotting in the second volume.
See original version (French)
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