Bertoni, Moisés (1858–1929)

Moisés Bertoni (b. 1858; d. 19 September 1929), Swiss-born naturalist active in Paraguay. A native of the Alpine cantor of Tessin, Bertoni left an indelible mark on scientific investigation in Paraguay. He attended the universities at Geneva and Zurich where he studied science before arriving in South America in 1884. Advised by the French geographer Elisée Reclus that the Misiones region of northeastern Argentina boasted flora and fauna found nowhere else, Bertoni relocated across the Paraná River to Paraguay in 1887. On the edge of the river, he built a fine home and laboratory at an isolated camp from which he conducted all manner of biological research. He published scores of articles and papers on such topics as yerba mate, ethnobotany, and the habits of aquatic mammals.

President Juan Gualberto González brought Bertoni to Asunción in the early 1890s to head the Jardín Zoológico and the newly established agricultural school. In 1893, while serving in that latter post, he recruited a number of Swiss colonists to settle at Colonia Guillermo Tell (later called Puerto Bertoni) in southeastern Paraguay. He acted as patron to these immigrants, a good many of whom stayed on in the country despite the fact that the colony did not prosper. For his part, Bertoni continued to edit scientific journals and write works on natural history, many of which were printed on a primitive press at Guillermo Tell. His magnum opus, Descripción física y económica del Paraguay, filled seventeen volumes, but Bertoni was only able to print four before his death.

See alsoSciencexml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos Zubizarreta, Cien vidas paraguayas, 2d ed. (1985), pp. 257-261.

Harris Gaylord Warren, Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic: The First Colorado Era, 1878–1904 (1985), pp. 292-293.

Additional Bibliography

Baratti, Danilo, and Patrizia Candolfi. Vida y obra del sabio Bertoni: Moisés Santiago Bertoni, 1857–1929: Un naturalista suizo en Paraguay. Asunción: Helvetas, 1999.

                                     Thomas L. Whigham