Simon Sirodot, native son of Longeau

Les Mammouths du Mont-Dol

This article was compiled using family memories…

“I was born on January 10^th 1825. They said that I was a hard-working and gifted student, I was admitted to the Ecole normale supérieure in 1849. After three years I got a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, in Maths and then an aggrégation in Natural Sciences. I met Louis Pasteur; our friendship lasted until his death.

On the 1^st October 1852, I was named teacher in Physics and Natural Sciences at Toulouse high school.  But then the Sciences College in Paris let me stop my career for two years to carry out research and to get my doctorate. Then I joined Rennes Science College in November 1860. I stayed there until my retirement and I was its dean for 25 years.

I met Adèle Joeffroy and we married in June 1863. My daughter, Blanche, used to say that I was “a real scientist of great intelligence and incredible goodness, who cared about the well-being of others…” I was a tireless worker; in addition to my job as a teacher and researcher, I was a town councillor (I was elected city councilman in Rennes because I was particularly keen to improve the water supply). I also loved working in my garden.

At university I taught Botany and Zoology. My children think that I don’t lack humour. I remember an anecdote. During an exam I asked one of the students to talk about bees, he answered “l’abeille est une petite bête qui a de la cire au dos” (“cire au dos” like his name sirodot), i.e. that the bee is a little animal with wax on its back. So he said “et vous, monsieur, vous avez de la colle aux pattes,” (which means the student was being a bit lazy). Later the student’s grandchild admitted that for personal reasons his grandfather hadn’t revised his lessons and was not able to say anything about bees. This anecdote is one of the best remembered in the family.

I received the Légion d’honneur, the Palmes Académiques, and a medal for agricultural merit for all my work. My scientific research has been published in several books. The most important is called Les Batrachopermes which is about freshwater algae.

But what I’m very proud of most is when, in 1872, I discovered a quaternary deposit in Mont Dol (a small village next to Saint-Malo); for me it was extraordinary. I paid the owner to allow me to excavate his grounds. During six years I spent my holidays exploring methodically the deposit of antediluvian bones...”

Simon Sirodot died on January 11^th 1903 while singing Venite Adoremus with his family. He is considered a precursor of modern palaeontology because of his innovative and strictly scientific approach. His finds are now exhibited in the Rennes Museum and in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. A street in Rennes and a school in Mont Dol bear his name. Yves Coppens was inspired by my great-great-grandfather’s research.

Les mamouths du Mont-Dol was painted by Mathurin Méheut for the Institut de Géologie de Rennes in honor of the excavation work by Simon Sirodot and l’Abbé Hamard.

Article by Claire BARBARIN