French author, born at Versailles on the 21st of June 1828; traveled in America for three years, where he obtained a large collection of insects and birds for the Paris Museum of Natural History; was made a doctor of medicine by the Academy at Puebla; became a member of a commission to Mexico, where he was decorated with the order of Guadeloupe by Maximilian. Upon his return to France after an absence of five years, he published a series of descriptions of his travels and of customs in America. The greater part of these writings were published in the Revue des Deux Mondes. He has also written several books of poetry, including Present and Past and The Mexicans.
