In existographies, Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800-1884) (GCE:5) (CR:15) was a French chemist noted, in human chemistry, for his 1837 opinion that there is some truth in Herman Boerhaave's 1732 metaphorical comparison of love and chemical affinity.
Overview
In 1837, Dumas asserted his opinion that “there is some truth in Boerhaave's poetic comparison”, referring to Dutch chemist Herman Boerhaave who in 1732 supposition that force of chemical affinity is “love, if love be the desire for marriage”. [1]
Dumas, to note, is the third greatest chemist, behind Jacob Berzelius (52), Justus Liebig (39), in the history of chemistry, according to English chemist James Partington’s famous 1937 A Short History of Chemistry, based on name index page-count (38).
Education
In 1830, Dumas was a chemistry professor at the Royal College of France, at which time Irish chemist Thomas Andrews, a student of his that year, described him as “one of the ablest chemists in France.” [2] In 1835, Dumas was professor of chemistry at the École Polytechnique.
References
1. (a) Boerhaave, Herman. (1732). Article/Books (quote: “si amor dicendus copulae cupido.”). Publisher.
(b) Dumas, Jean. (1837). Lessons on Chemical Philosophy (Leçons sur la philosophie chimique). Paris: Gauthier-Villars.
(c) Mellor, Joseph W. (1922). Modern Inorganic Chemistry (pg. 95). Longmans, Green & Co.
2. Andrews, Thomas, Tait, Peter G., and A. Crum Brown. (1889). The Scientific Papers of the Late Thomas Andrews: with a Memoir by P.G. Tait and A. Crum Brown (Dumas, pg. xii). Macmillan & Co.
Further reading
● Dumas, Jean. (1842). Essai de Statique Chimique des Etres Organises (The Statistical Chemistry of Organized Beings). Paris.
External links
● Jean-Baptiste Dumas – Wikipedia.
