The colonial machine : French science and overseas expansion in the old regime / James E. McClellan III, François Regourd.

Some of the contents: Introduction: The big-picture background to this study / Historiographical background / Metaphors and reality / Utility as the driving force / Expertise, careers, and Wanderlust / Concluding introductory remarks; Prologue / The colonial machine, 1789; Part I - The metropolitan wheels & gears of a colonial scientific bureaucracy: The sponsoring authorities / the royal navy-la marine royale / the Académie royal des sciences / The jardin du roi and metropolitian botancial gardens / The observatoire royal / The Académie royale de marine at Brest / The société royale de médecine / The Académie royale de chirurgie.