Clovis Thorel

Clovis Thorel (28 Apr. 1833, Vers-Hébécourt, France — 11 Sept. 1911, Bagnoles-de-l’Orne, France) was a botanist, physician and explorer who joined Cpt Doudart de Lagree’s Commission d’Exploration du Mekong in 1866 – 1868, and authored the ethnographic and botanical parts of its 1873 published report.

Physician resident of the Amiens hospitals, he joined the French Imperial Navy in 1861 and was sent to Saigon Hospital. A fervent botanist and naturalist, he was assigned to the Mekong Exploration Commission, traveling through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, visiting Angkorean temples, and reaching the mountains of Yunnan. After Doudart de Lagree’s death, the party managed to reach Shanghai in June 1868, a periple of some 8,800 kilometers.

Francis Garnier, in his Voyage d’exploration en Indochine (p.4), noted: “Thorel, chirurgien de la marine, chargé de la partie botanique du voyage, était depuis 1862 dans la colonie. Infatigable coureur de forêts et d’arroyos, il avait, dès cette époque, travaillé avec la plus louable persévérance à constituer la flore d’un pays où presque tout était à découvrir, et, passionné pour son oeuvre comme le sont tous les spécialistes, il était impatient d’élargir le cercle de ses recherches. Agé de trente et un ans, sa santé robuste paraissait n’avoir que peu souffert de l’énervant climat sous
l’influence duquel il vivait depuis plus de quatre ans.” [“Naval surgeon Thorel, in charge of the botanical part of the trip, had been in the colony since 1862. A tireless explorer of forests and arroyos, he had, from that time, worked with the most laudable perseverance to constitute a summary on the flora of a country where almost everything was to be discovered, and, passionate about his work as all specialists are, he was impatient to broaden the circle of his research. He didn’t suffer much from the annoying climate under the influence of which he had lived for more than four years.”]

Back in France, he presented his thesis on 7 March 1870, Notes médicales du voyage d’exploration du Mékong et de Conchinchine, in which he pionereed the research on medicinal plants of then Indochina and their use by local inhabitants, paving the way to a Southeast Asian ethno-pharmacopeia. Dr. Thorel also contributed to the edition of Doudart de Lagree’s personal papers in collaboration with French Navy historian A.-B. de VilIemereuil, and to Francis Garnier’s monumental and posthumous book Voyage d’exploration en Indo-chine.

On this now famous photograph by Emile Gsell in Angkor in 1866, the members of the Mekong Exploration Commission in Angkor Wat: (from right to left), Lt Francis Garnier, Lt Louis Delaporte, Clovis Thorel, Cpt Ernest Doudart de Lagrée, Lucien Joubert, Louis de Carné.

Eponymy: Neothorelia Gagnepain (1908); Thoreldora Pierre (1897); Thorelia Gagnepain (1920, nom. cons.); Thorelia H.F. Hance (1877, nom. rej.); Thoreliella Wu (1957).