Pierre Paul Dehérain

Paul Pierre Dehérain was born in Paris, on April 19, 1830. He took his basic education of the Collège Municipal Chaptal and after receiving his diplomas of bachelier ès lettres (1847), and bachelier ès sciences (1849), he entered the recently created École de Administration but he was stopped suddenly by the suppression the École. He then moved to the École de Mines and in 1850 entered the laboratory of Edmond Frémy (1814-1894) at the Muséum d’Historie Naturelle. Afterwards he was appointed préparateur of the course on Zoology applied to Agriculture (1854-1864), taught by the agronomist Émile Baudement (1816-1863) at the Conservatoire des Art et Métiers, where Jean Baptiste Boussingault (1802-1887) was also teaching. During his studies he found time to teach chemistry at the Collège Chaptal, and continued doing for 24 years
(1856-1880). In 1856 he received his degree of Licencié ès Sciences and in 1859, at the age of 29, he received his degree of Docteur ès Sciences after defending his theses about chlorine salts (Les Combinaisons Formées par des Chlorures sont-elles des Sels?) and the use of phosphates in agriculture (Recherches sur l’Emploi Agricole des Phosphates). In 1865 he was invited by Joseph de Mornay (1804-1868), Minister of Agriculture, to become professeur suppléant at the École d’Agriculture de Grignon, and promoted to professeur titulaire in 1869. In 1872 he returned to the Muséum as aide naturaliste to
the Chair of Culture, and between 1873 and 1879 he deputized for Joseph Decaisne (1807-1882) in the course on farming. In 1880 he was promoted to the rank of professor and occupied the chair Plant Physiology Applied to Agriculture. During the same period he also taught a course of Agricultural Chemistry at the École de Grignon, where he was later appointed professor. In 1880 he was appointed by decree professeur administrateur of the Vegetable Physiology Applied to Agriculture Chair at the Muséum. In 1887 he was elected to the Académie de Sciences (section agriculture rurale) replacing Boussingault who had just passed away. In 1875 he founded the journal Annales Agronomiques, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dehérain passed away on December 7, 1902, and was buried in the Père Lachaise
cemetery (65e division, 3e ligne, AA, 4).