Édouard-Alfred Martel Édouard-Alfred Martel Édouard-Alfred Martel (1 July 1859, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise – 3 June 1938, Montbrison), the 'father of modern speleology', was a world pioneer of cave exploration, study, and documentation. Martel explored thousands of caves in his native France and many other countries, popularised the pursuit of cave exploration, introduced the concept of speleology as a distinct area of scientific study, maintained an extensive archive, and in 1895 founded , the first organisation devoted to cave science in the world. Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in Pontoise, Seine-et-Oise on 1 July 1859. Born into a family of lawyers, he studied at the
Society for the Promotion of the Physical Exploration of the Dutch Colonies number of famous classical and exploration trips to, among other Borneo and Dutch New Guinea were developed by and under the auspices of the Society and the Indian Committee for Scientific Investigations, a sister organisation in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Society for the Promotion of the Physical Exploration of the Dutch Colonies The Society for the Promotion of the Physical Exploration of the Dutch Colonies (Dutch: Maatschappij ter Bevordering van het Natuurkundig Onderzoek der Nederlandsche Koloniën) was founded on 14 May 1890 in Amsterdam, with the mission of increasing the knowledge of the botany of the Dutch colonies. This knowledge