[THE PROFESSORS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND THE SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF THE SCIENCES OF WARSAW (1800-1832)].

The National Museum of Natural History played a crucial role in the formation of Polish scientific elites in the 19th century. Many Polish students were attending in Paris natural history, botany, zoology, chemistry and mineralogy courses. The Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning was the largest scientific society and one of the most important scientific institutions in Poland. It had also an impact on the political and cultural life of the country, occupied and deprived of freedom at that time. Amongst its founders and members, could be found listeners to the lectures of Lamarck, Haüy, Vauquelin, Desfontaines, Jussieu. Moreover, seven professors of the National Museum of Natural History were elected foreign members of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning: Cuvier, Desfontaines, Haüy, Jussieu, Latreille, Mirbel, Vauquelin. The article analyses this choice and underlines the relationship between these scientists and Warsaw's scientists. The results of this research allow to confirm that the National Museum of Natural History was the most important foreign institution in the 19th century for Polish science, and more specifically natural sciences.