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[[File:Father Eugène Lafont, S.J., (1830-1908) missionary to India and scientist.gif|thumb|A photograph of Father Lafont, date unknown]]
'''Eugène Lafont, [[Society of Jesus|S.J.]]''' (26 March 1837 in [[Mons]], [[Hainaut (province)|Hainaut]], [[Belgium]] – 10 May 1908 in [[Darjeeling]], [[British India]]), was a Belgian [[Jesuit]] priest, who became a [[missionary]] in India, where he became a noted scientist and the founder of the first Scientific Society in India.<ref>Missions belges de la Compagnie de Jésus 1908 - Page 242 "Le Révérend Père Eugène Lafont, S.J. : Le 10 mai est décédé à Darjeeling, dans la Mission du Bengale, le Père Eugène Lafont. « Cette perte, écrit M. Guillaume Verspeyen, n'afflige pas seulement les parents et amis du regretté défunt et ..."</ref>

==Formation and early years==
[[File:Eugène Lafont (1837-1908).jpg|thumb|A drawing of Father Lafont as a young man]]
He was born in [[Mons]], where his father, Pierre Lafont, a military officer, was stationed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in/scientists/FELafont.htm|work=Vigyan Prasar Science Portal|title=Father Eugene Lafont: A Selfless Missionary of Science in India}}</ref> After secondary studies in the Jesuit Collège de Sainte-Barbe in his town, in 1854 Lafont was received into the [[novitiate]] of the [[Society of Jesus]], located in the former [[Norbertine]] [[:fr:Abbaye de Tronchiennes|Abbey of Tronchiennes]] in [[Ghent]]. He then went through the usual Jesuit formation, spending his period of [[Regency (Jesuit)|Regency]] teaching in Jesuit schools in Ghent (1857–59) and [[Liège]] (1862–63), followed by his studying to obtain degrees in both [[philosophy]] in [[Tournai]] and the [[natural sciences]] in [[Namur (city)|Namur]] (1863–65). In Namur he showed a particular aptitude for physical experimentation.

==Service in India==

===St. Xavier's College===
In 1859 the [[Superior General]] of the Society of Jesus entrusted the opening of a college for the native Catholics of [[West Bengal]] to the Jesuit [[ecclesiastical province|Province]] of Belgium. The superior of the Jesuit community at Namur, [[Henri Depelchin]], S.J., was sent to India by as the head of a group of Jesuits who were charged with this task. [[St. Xavier's College, Calcutta]], was opened for classes in January 1860. Aware of Lafont's talent in the field of science, Delpelchin requested that he be assigned to the mission. In 1865 Lafont left for India where he arrived, in [[Calcutta]] on 4 December of that year.

Soon after arriving in the capital city of [[British India]], Lafont was appointed to teach science. The school was barely 5 years old and everything had to be done. Since he could not teach science without practical experiments, however, he promptly installed a laboratory in the college—the first such science laboratory of modern India. In November 1867, he made headlines in the local press thanks to a makeshift observatory set on the roof of the college. He recorded daily meteorological observations which allowed him to anticipate with much accuracy the arrival of a devastating cyclone.<ref name="TOI">{{cite news |title=150-year-old St Xavier's College's observatory restore |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/150-year-old-St-Xaviers-Colleges-observatory-restored/articleshow/31811293.cms |access-date=13 October 2020 |publisher=Times of India |date=11 March 2014 |quote=predicted the killer cyclone of November 1867}}</ref> The government authorities were informed and took immediate measures that prevented the loss of many lives. From that day forward, meteorological forecasts by Lafont were regularly published in the major weekly newspaper of Calcutta, the ''Indo-European Correspondence''.

===Scientific lectures===
By 1870 Lafont was at ease in the English language and began to give scientific lectures for the general public, in which he demonstrated that he had a particular gift in popularizing scientific knowledge. All the new scientific discoveries and inventions of the second half of the 19th century were thus made known, always with empirical evidence. So was it of the [[magic lantern]], the telephone, phonograph, X-rays, photography, etc. Through contacts the science enthusiast had brought from Europe the most modern scientific tools, such as the meteograph of [[Angelo Secchi]] ([[meteorology]] remained his favourite field of activity). The lectures had a huge success and came to an end only with Lafont's retiring to Darjeeling, a few months before his death in 1908.<ref>Thomas Hockey, Katherine Bracher, Marvin Bolt Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers 2007 - Page 1120 "During the trip to India, needing a low latitude observatory for winter solar observations, Tacchini founded the spectroscopic Calcutta Astronomical Observatory, at Saint Xavier College (directed by Eugène Lafont, S.J.) From 1874 on, Tacchini, ..."</ref>

In 1873 Lafont was named the [[Rector (academia)|Rector]] of St. Xavier's College. The next year, a high level international scientific expedition visited Calcutta on its way to the nearby town of [[Midnapore]] in order to observe a very rare [[astronomical]] phenomenon: the passage of planet [[Venus]] before the sun. Lafont joined the group. His observations made him known internationally and the following year he easily obtained the financial help needed in order to build an astronomical observatory on the school grounds, equipped with the most modern telescope.

===Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science===
With the financial support of [[philanthropist]] [[Mahendra Lal Sircar]], whose friend he was since 1869, Lafont founded in 1876 the [[Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science]]. The first aim of the association was to disseminate scientific knowledge and keep the general public abreast with the latest scientific progresses. From its early days the Thursday evening lectures given by Lafont were one of the association's main activities. Later it developed into a center of research which supported, among others, the [[spectrographic]] investigations of [[C.V. Raman]] (1930 winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]) and of [[K.S. Krishnan]].

[[Jagadish Chandra Bose]] (1858–1937) was another student, and later friend, of Lafont.<ref>S. J. De Laet — History of Humanity: The twentieth century - 1994 Page 732 "After an initial education at a village school, Jagadis Chunder studied sanskrit, latin and physics with Father Eugène Lafont at st. Xavier's College, Calcutta. upon graduation in 1879, ..."</ref> When Bose discovered the 'wireless telegraphy' (at the source of radiophonic inventions) it is Lafont who made in Calcutta (1897) a public demonstration of this discovery. For Lafont there was no doubt that Bose had preceded the Italian [[Guglielmo Marconi]] in this discovery. He never failed to give due credit to his former student.

In fact Lafont was more of an educator than a research scholar or inventor. His competence and varied activities gave him a place in the [[University of Calcutta]], of which he was a Senate member for many years. Thanks to him the importance of the study of science in the University was acknowledged: he prepared the science syllabus and in 1903 obtained from the Indian Universities Commission more substantial means for the setting up of laboratories and the improvement of the science courses. In 1908, a few months before his death, he received a [[List of University of Calcutta honorary degree recipients|Doctorate in Sciences ''Honoris Causa'']] from the University of Calcutta.

==Evaluation==
Lafont was an extraordinary science enthusiast. He was also a man of faith. As the [[Catholic Church]] at that time had a very negative image in the world of science, Lafont had to give an account of himself before scientists who expressed surprise. ''Though Catholic and priest, I may well tell you that I receive with profound joy, and even love, every progress made in science''. He was not blind to the dangers of the widespread ‘[[scientism]]' of his times and what he said when [[radium]] was discovered may well be premonitory: ''These discoveries must make us cautious. We shouldn't easily believe that we are in possession of a final certainty in what concerns Matter and the forces of nature in general. It is noble and wonderful to say: 'I do not know'''.

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|author=Arun Kumar Biswas|author-link=Arun Kumar Biswas|title=Father Eugene Lafont of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and the Contemporary Science Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WnLZAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Asiatic Society|isbn=978-81-7236-104-4}}
* {{cite book|author=Udayan Namboodiry|title=St. Xavier's, the making of a Calcutta institution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DbYsAQAAIAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Viking|isbn=9780670861767}}
*Achille Verstraeten: ''A Jesuit physicist and Astronomer'', in ''Jesuit profiles'', Anand, 1991.

==See also==
*[[List of Jesuit scientists]]
*[[List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Bengal Renaissance}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafont, Eugene}}
[[Category:1837 births]]
[[Category:1908 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Mons]]
[[Category:19th-century Belgian Jesuits]]
[[Category:Belgian educators]]
[[Category:Belgian Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:20th-century Belgian Jesuits]]
[[Category:Jesuit missionaries]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in India]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from Kolkata]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta faculty]]
[[Category:Burials in West Bengal]]
[[Category:Belgian meteorologists]]
[[Category:Jesuit scientists]]

Eugène Lafont - Revision history

>WikiCleanerBot at 14:30, 28 May 2021