Gabriel-Philippe de La Hire

Gabriel-Philippe de La Hire (1677 to 1719) was a French scientist, the son of the astronomer Philippe de La Hire. Born in Paris to Philippe de La Hire and Catherine Lesage, he learned astronomy from his father at the Paris observatory and helped with his observations, becoming an associate of the Academy of Sciences in 1699. His study of the growth of human teeth under the microscope that year is read as an early sighting of the bands now called Hunter-Schreger bands. From 1703 he published papers with the Academy, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1706, and his book on timber construction, L'art de charpenterie, appeared in 1702. With Jacques Cassini he worked in 1718 to fix the longitude of Amiens and Dunkirk. He and his father were accused of plagiarism by Jean Le Fevre around 1702. He died in 1719.