and other animals. He also received the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh for this work. His earliest researches, which provided him with material for his two doctoral theses, were devoted to animal grafting and the vitality of animal tissues, and they were followed by studies on the physiological action of various poisons, on anaesthetics, on respiration and asphyxia, on the causes of the change of color in the chameleon, etc. He was also interested in vegetable physiology, and in particular investigated the movements of the sensitive plant, and the influence of light of different colours on the life of vegetation (photobiology). He wrote a very successful textbook with Raphael Blanchard Éléments de zoologie G. Masson (Paris), 1885. In The Phrenological journal and science of health (1883) it was claimed that he held an atheistic belief Racist theories After about 1880, he produced several elementary textbooks of scientific instruction and also various publications on educational and allied subjects. Widely used in French schools for decades as the basis for scientific education, his book La Deuxième année d'enseignement scientifique (34th edition: Armand Colin, 1896) claimed that "European whites" are far superior and more intelligent than blacks, people from Asian, and Native Americans, among others. He also actively opposed the granting of any political rights for the indigenous people in French Algeria. See also Notes Sources References Further reading 1833 births 1886 deaths People from Auxerre Politicians from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Republican Union (France) politicians French Ministers of Public Education and Religious Affairs Members of the National Assembly (1871) Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 4th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Governors-General of French Indochina French atheists French physiologists 19th-century French zoologists French entomologists École Polytechnique alumni Academic staff of the University of Bordeaux Academic staff of the University of Paris Members of the French Academy of Sciences