The academy was founded in 1662 by Andre Graindorge, local physician and natural philosopher, and Pierre-Daniel Huet, a well-known scholar and native of Caen that had recently returned home from a trip to Sweden, where he worked at the court of Queen Christina.
[3] In 1665, the combination of the appearance of a comet, as well as Graindorge's extended trip to Paris, served to inspire the group's interest in science and formalize their activities.
He began to use the knowledge he gained in Paris to direct the work of the group, focusing on natural phenomena and animals, such as the causes of dew, snakes and the effects of their venom, as well as investigations of the circulatory system.
However, the royal recognition did not solve the confusion over who was to direct the work of the academy, as Chamillart's priority was his job as a regional bureaucrat, not the patron of a new scientific organization.
To that end, he recommended that the Academy begin to work on regional and municipal problems, such as draining local swamps and constructing fountains.
There was some success in the areas listed, such as in civil engineering, with experiments in the desalinization of seawater and a project to widen the channel in the local river, and with scientific instruments, such as Vaucoulers barometer and new design for a marine chronometer by Villons.
[11] The greatest success continued to be in the academy's anatomy program, which produced two volumes of illustrated dissection reports that were submitted to and praised by the Académie Royale in Paris in 1667 and 1668.
[16] A delay in receiving the royal funds, as well as difficulties in establishing a regular meeting place, caused the group to begin to break apart.
In early 1672, Graindorge attempted to reunite the group around a new project, a study of the scoter that would disprove the theory that the birds come from the barnacles of ship, a belief also promoted by the church.