00:00Charles-Marie de la Condamine, born on January 27, 1701 in Paris and died on February 4, 1774 in Paris,
00:06is a French explorer and scientist, astronomer and encyclopedist of the 18th century.
00:11Knight of the Royal, Military and Hospitaller Orders of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Secretary
00:18commands of His Serene Highness the Duke of Orléans,
00:21He is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, the Stanislas Academy of Nancy, and an associate
00:26foreign member of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences of Berlin, the Academy
00:31of the sciences of Russia in Saint Petersburg, of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna and of the
00:36'Cortonna Academy.
00:37He was elected to the French Academy in 1760 and received by Buffon.
00:41He is famous for having led, from 1735 to 1743, a French geodetic expedition to Ecuador which measured 3
00:48degrees of the meridian in order to determine the shape of the Earth.
00:52He gained particular renown as a committed advocate for smallpox inoculation.
00:57Through his contributions to the botany, zoology, and geography of Ecuador and the Amazon, he is
01:02considered a precursor to Humboldt.
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