Moisés Santiago Bertoni

Mosè Giacomo Bertoni (15 June 1857 – 19 September 1929), known in Spanish as Moisés Santiago Bertoni, was a Swiss botanist of Italian descent. He emigrated to South America in 1884 and lived in Paraguay from 1887 until he died in 1929.

Bertoni work and researched in botany, meteorology, and anthropology. He discovered and classified many new species of plants and left a collection of more than 7000 vegetal species and about 6500 insects. One of the plants he studied in depth was ka'a he'ê (Stevia rebaudiana), a herb indigenous to Paraguay, which became important as a non-caloric sweetener, reputed to be 300 times sweeter than sugar. He also scientifically classified yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis).

Childhood and youth

He was born in the small village of Lottigna, in canton Ticino in the Italian-speaking region in Switzerland, on June 15, 1857, the son of Ambrose Bertoni, a lawyer, jurist, and official, and Josefina Torreani, a teacher from Milan.

His primary and secondary studies were completed in the Lyceum, Lugano.

In 1874 he founded, in collaboration with his mother, the first meteorological observatory of his hometown, Lottigna. In 1875 he started his studies in law and Natural Sciences in the University of Geneva. In 1876 he enrolled in the University of Zurich, where he met biochemistry student Eugenia Rossetti, whom he married the following year.

Beginnings

He left Switzerland for Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 3, 1884 on the steamer Nord Americas with his wife, their children Reto Divicone, Arnoldo da Winkelried, Vera Zassoulich, Sofía Perovskaya (Helvecia) and Inés, his mother Josefina Torreani (who left behind her husband Ambrose and his youngest son, Brennan), and some 40 farmers.

On March 30 they landed in Buenos Aires, and were interviewed by the chairman of the Nation, General Julio Argentino Roca, who provided the means to travel to and colonize the province of Misiones. They arrived in the territory of Santa Ana and Bertoni began work in agriculture, botany, zoology, meteorology, and ethnography.

While working in Misiones he crossed the border into Paraguay, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Career

He created a community of agricultural production and scientific research. He had a Swiss colleague, Emil Hassler.

In Argentina the Bertonis' son Moisés Santiago was born; in Paraguay they had more children, Aurora Eugenia and Guillermo Tell, Walter Fürst, Werner Stauffacher and Aristóteles. He worked alone, without government support, or sources, means or instruments, in the physical and natural sciences, anthropology, making linguistic and ideological, philosophical observations and historical commentary.

In 1891 he founded on the banks of the Paraná river the 12,500 hectare (5 square miles) "William Tell Colony", today known as Puerto Bertoni, where Bertoni and his family were buried at the ends of their lives. They grew coffee, bananas and citrus to make a living and finance the scientific work, combining agricultural production and scientific research in the rural community.

Bertoni was invited by the Paraguayan president, General Juan Bautista Egusquiza (1845–1902), to form an Agricultural Institute in the capital Asunción.

He made meteorological studies for Argentine and Paraguayan governments, wrote scientific papers, and drove the leading publisher of scientific Paraguay.

In January 1988 the environmentalist "Moises Bertoni Foundation" was set up for environmental conservation, aiming to contribute to the protection and sustainable development of natural resources in Paraguay.

Death

On September 19, 1929, at the age of 72, he died of malaria in the town of Foz do Iguazu in Brazil; his wife had died three weeks before in Encarnación in the south of Paraguay, unknown to him. The following day his body was returned to Puerto Bertoni, where he was buried near his workplace and the graves of his mother, Nonna Peppino, and his son Linneo Carlos.

Distinctions

• 1896, President of Paraguay Juan Bautista Egusquiza calls him to found the National School of Agriculture, in Asunción, and runs for nine years.
• 1903, he organized by the National Society of Agriculture.
• 1905, he assists as Paraguayan Government Delegate to the Third Latin American Scientific Congress of Rio de Janeiro, where he introduced the first work on "Geology of Paraguay" and two new meteorological equipment he invented a drosómetro and a fitotermómetro.
• 1910, concurs commissioned by the Paraguayan government, the International Exhibition of Buenos Aires, where you get medals and diplomas. That same year he represents Paraguay in the American International Congress being held in the Buenos Aires.
• 1914, called by the President of the Republic of Paraguay, took the Directorate of Agriculture.
• 1922 attending as a delegate of the Republic of Paraguay to American International Scientific Congress in Rio de Janeiro, which presented works on anthropology and ethnography Guaraní.

Research

Bertoni researched in the physical and natural sciences, anthropology, testing linguistic and ideological, philosophical observations and historical commentary.

He studied the frequency of rain, and for fifty years made daily records of humidity, wind and temperature. He was also interested in linguistics.

He did not become well-known because he worked alone, without government support, and with minimal resources, means and instruments.

Botanical collections

His botanical collections are conserved at the Sociedad Científica del Paraguay, and were afterwards restored by the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève (Switzerland).

Works

• In 1878: Nuovo compendio di geografia. - Bellinzona : Colombi,
• In 1882: His first scientific book, Revista Científica Svizzera
• In 1882: receives the commissioning of the Swiss Federal Government to reorganize the meteorological network in his country, which conducts and a year later published an interesting study in this regard.
• In 1886 writes the text: "Moises Bertoni, La Voce del Ticino", in the year that drought forced his family to leave Santa Ana to achieve Yabebiry,
• He wrote scientific papers and even drove the leading publisher of scientific Paraguay
• He studied weather for the Argentine and Paraguayan governments.
• A timetable that predicts rain and still predicting, sixty years after his death,
• Your name has reached legendary proportions and prestige one of the most important environmental foundations of the nation Guarani: 'Bertoni Foundation Moses', created in January 1898.
• In 1918 in Port Installs Bertoni a print shop that calls itself the "Former Sylvis." The uses to publish its extensive written work, which was unprecedented much.
• Summary of prehistory and protohistory, the country Guaraní. Assumption: Brossa, s.d. - 162 p.
• A publication on Cocoa; possible acclimation in Paraguay.
• Plant usual Alto Parana and Paraguay Missions: nomenclature, characters, properties and applications.
• Including a study of physical and industrial timber
• In 1901, published in his own imprint: Paraguayan agricultural Almanac. -- Puerto Bertoni: Printing and Publishing Former Sylvis, - 250 p.
• In 1903, published in his own imprint: Paraguay's agricultural agenda. -- Puerto Bertoni: Printing and publishing Former Sylvis, - 360 p.
• In 1903 the editing: Calendar and Almanac Paraguayan agriculture. -- Asunción: Tall. National H. Kraus - 360 p.

• In 1903 edits: Agenda and agricultural almanac Paraguay: containing an indication of agricultural work each month - 2nd ed. -- Assumption: H. Kraus - 360 p.
• In the year 1904: meios Pratica to combat or Gorgulho do milho. -- Bahia: Offices do Diario de Bahia. 13 p.
• Plant usual Paraguay: Alto Parana and Misiones; nomenclature, characters, properties applications according to research by the author, or data from credible persons or make use of them Indians, including a study of physical and industrial timber. -- Asunción: Tall. National H. Kraus, 1905. -- 100 p.
• The agricultural education. -- Asunción: Kraus, 1905. -- 34 p.
• Summary of botany geography of Paraguay. -- Asunción: s.n., 1907
• The green cover and the removal of the weed in plantations. --: S.n., 1909. -18 P.
• Plantae Bertonianae: les onothéracées du Paraguay. -- Asunción: Tall. National H. Kraus, 1910. -- 22 P.
• In the year 1910: Description of Physical and economic Paraguay: Plantae Bertonianae. -- S. L.: s.n., P. 20
• In 1911: Contribution to preliminary systematic study, biological and economic Paraguayan plants. 2nd ed. -- S.L.: s.n..,
• New method for growing banana: practice of "grazed unburned."—In 1911: Puerto Bertoni: Printing and Publishing Former Sylvis, - 14 P.
• In 1912: Contribution to the study of gomosis of orange and its treatment. -- Assumption: The Printing beehive - 1 pl, 13, 4 P.
• Spelling Guarani based on the international spelling adopted by the congresses of zoology and botany, according to the spelling language adopted by the international scientific congress in Buenos Aires (1910) and usually followed by linguists Americans. -- Assumption: M. Brossa, 1914. -- 22 P.
• Extended Edition part of the monograph "Introduction usual plants, nomenclature, and dictionary of Latin genres Guarani of the play" economic and physical description of Paraguay”
• Animals Paraguayan. -- S.L.: S. N., 1913
• Physical description and cost of Paraguay. -- Asunción: Brossa, 1913
• Summary of prehistory and protohistoria of countries Guarani: lectures given at the National College of second lesson of the Asuncion on July 26, 8 and August 21, 1913. -- Asunción: J.E. O'Leary, 1914. -- 1 PL., XLV, 162 p.
• Spelling Guarani based on the international spelling adopted by the congresses of zoology and botany, according to the spelling language adopted by the international scientific congress in Buenos Aires (1910) and usually followed by linguists Americans. -- Asunción: M. Brossa, 1914. -- 22 P.
• Extended Edition part of the monograph "Introduction usual plants, nomenclature, and dictionary of Latin genres Guarani of the play" economic and physical description of Paraguay "
• Animals Paraguayan. -- S.L.: S. N. , 1913
• Physical description and cost of Paraguay. -- Assumption: Brossa, 1913
• Summary of prehistory and protohistoria of countries Guarani: lectures given at the National College of second lesson of the Assumption on July 26, 8 and August 21, 1913. -- Assumption: J.E. O'Leary, 1914. -- 1 PL. , XLV, 162 p.
• The usual plants in Paraguay and neighboring countries: characters, properties and applications with the nomenclature Guarani, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin and etymology Guarani including a study of physical and industrial timber. -- Asunción: M: Brossa, 1914. -- 78 p.
• "Physical description of Paraguay and economic" novenal numbering 31; Introduction, nomenclature and botanical dictionary of Latin genres Guarani.