Bernard Germain Etienne De La Ville Lacepede, count de, a French naturalist, born in Agen, Dec. 26, 1756, died at his country seat near St. Denis, Oct. 6, 1825. He early evinced a taste for natural philosophy and musical composition, and going to Paris when 20 years old, was welcomed by Buffon and by the composer Gluck. He gave to music the time not devoted to natural philosophy, composed several operas, and in 1785 published his Poetique de la musique (2 vols. 8vo), in which Gluck's principles are expounded. He had previously written an Essai sur l'electricite naturelle et artificielle (2 vols. 8vo, 1781), and Physique generale et particuliere (2 vols. 12mo, 1782-'4), which, although not well received by men of science, had such merits of style that Buffon engaged him as an assistant in continuing his "Natural History," and appointed him keeper and assistant demonstrator at the museum. His Histoire des quadrupedes ovipares et des serpents (2 vols. 4to, 1788-9) and Histoire naturelle des reptiles (4to, 1789) have been frequently reprinted as sequels to Buffon's work. He favored the revolution, received several offices of trust, and was elected in 1791 to the legislative assembly, over which he presided toward the end of the same year.

On the massacres of September, he so energetically expostulated with Danton that his friends removed him from Paris, and persuaded him to resign his office at the museum. He did not return till after the 9th Thermidor. Being regarded as the legitimate heir of Buffon, he took his seat among the original members of the institute on its foundation, and was appointed to the newly created professorship of herpetology in the jardin des plantes. His Histoire naturelle des poissons (6 vols. 4to and 11 vols. 12mo, 1798-1803) and Histoire des cetaces (4to and 2 vols. 12mo, 1804) display great descriptive talent. On the organization of the consular government, he was made a member of the senate, in 1801 president of that body, in 1803 grand chancellor of the legion of honor, and soon afterward minister of state. As president of the senate he presented in 1809 the report upon the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine. He submitted to the Bourbons on their first return, joined Napoleon during the hundred days, and, though coldly treated on the second restoration, reentered the chamber of peers in 1819. He died of smallpox.

Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of several papers printed in the Memoires of the institute, and, jointly with George Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, of La menagerie du museum national d'histoire naturelle (1801), a descriptive history of the animals in the jardin des plantes. He devoted the last months of his life to correcting the notes of the Histoire generale, physique et civile de l'Europe, depuis les dernieres annees du 5e siecle jusque vers le milieu du 18e, which appeared after his death (18 vols. 8vo, 1826), and attracted very little attention. To this must be added two other posthumous works: Histoire naturelle de l'homme (8vo, 1827), and Les ages de la nature et l'histoire de l'espece humaine (2 vols. 8vo, 1830). Under the title of CEuvres de M. le comte de Lacepede, his discourses and natural histories of cetaceous and oviparous animals, snakes, and fishes were collected in 11 vols. 8vo, 1826, and reprinted in 1831-'3, 1836, 1840, and in 3 vols. 8vo, 1862.