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remember from hearsay, Dr. H. Belval had come to Shanghai and worked as Head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Aurora where he researched plant sugars. He was replaced at the Dept. of Chemistry by one of my colleagues, Dr. Georges Durr, a Marist.
Dr. Belval was also a keen botanist and as such he was Director of the Musee Heude. He was responsible for the transfer of the Museum to its new premises and was its Director from 1929 to 1931. During this time, he prepared the publication of Courtois' Collection Petite Flore des environs de Changhai et de Nanking (Little Flora of the Shanghai and Nanking areas). It has never been published.
Belval was succeeded by Octave Piel S.J., an entomologist with an interest in Chinese Archaeology and Art.
Now I come to my own connection with the Heude Museum, its activities and its staff.
Br. Paul August F.M.S.
When I arrived in Shanghai from Beijing in September 1935, I had the good fortune of being appointed at St. Joan of Arc's College, a bilingual school of English and French media. There, I met Paul August. This humble man was Assistant Headmaster and Bursar of this school, full-time teacher of English, Mathematics, French and Latin. In spite of that heavy assignment, he took time to accumulate an enormous amount of scientific data and personal observations: notes on plants and insects collected by himself, study on chemicals, geology, petrology, weather observations, etc. His notes fill six large books written in a perfect handwriting. He had provided the Heude Museum with thousands of specimens of insects and hundreds of plants carefully packed and fully annotated.
So, for 10 years, this was one of the men I was going to live with. We soon found common interests and I owe to him, not only the development of my scientific studies in Natural History but also the scientific discipline of mind and action which transcends that of an amateur.
For 10 years, we used to take long walks in the countryside that was Hungjiao, Lunghua, Jiangwan etc. in the 40s and 50s and come back with plants, insects and other specimens collected there. Then, at home,
187
remember from hearsay, Dr. H. Belval had come to Shanghai and worked as Head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Aurora where he researched plant sugars. He was replaced at the Dept. of Chemistry by one of my colleagues, Dr. Georges Durr, a Marist.
Dr. Belval was also a keen botanist and as such he was Director of the Musee Heude. He was responsible for the transfer of the Museum to its new premises and was its Director from 1929 to 1931. During this time, he prepared the publication of Courtois' Collection Petite Flore des environs de Changhai et de Nanking (Little Flora of the Shanghai and Nanking areas). It has never been published.
Belval was succeeded by Octave Piel S.J., an entomologist with an interest in Chinese Archaeology and Art.
Now I come to my own connection with the Heude Museum, its activities and its staff.
Br. Paul August F.M.S.
When I arrived in Shanghai from Beijing in September 1935, I had the good fortune of being appointed at St. Joan of Arc's College, a bilingual school of English and French media. There, I met Paul August. This humble man was Assistant Headmaster and Bursar of this school, fulltime teacher of English, Mathematics, French and Latin. In spite of that heavy assignment, he took time to accumulate an enormous amount of scientific data and personal observations: notes on plants and insects collected by himself, study on chemicals, geology, petrology, weather observations, etc. His notes fill six large books written in a perfect handwriting. He had provided the Heude Museum with thousands of specimens of insects and hundreds of plants carefully packed and fully annotated.
So, for 10 years, this was one of the men I was going to live with. We soon found common interests and I owe to him, not only the development of my scientific studies in Natural History but also the scientific discipline of mind and action which transcends that of an
amateur.
For 10 years, we used to take long walks in the countryside that was Hungjiao, Lunghua, Jiangwan etc. in the 40s and 50s and come back with plants, insects and other specimens collected there. Then, at home,
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