CHEMISTRY 



There was a time, thanks chiefly to the genius of 

 LAVOISIER, when chemistry was in truth a "French 

 science." Now that it has diffused from France over the 

 whole world and become international, the labors of 

 that epoch remain as an inspiration to chemists of every 

 nation. There is hardly a single tendency of the science 

 which is not founded upon the researches of the French. 



From the time of LAVOISIER, the development of 

 French chemistry was rapid and broad, because founded 

 upon measurement and established in a very favorable 

 environment. BERTHOLLET, GAY-LUSSAC, and THENARD, 

 at the beginning of last century; later CHEVREUL, DUMAS, 

 LAURENT and GERHARDT, WURTZ, SAINTE-CLAIRE 

 DEVILLE, and BERTHELOT, together with AMPERE and 

 PASTEUR (two great names better known in other fields), 

 contributed a large part of the principles, the theories, 

 and the facts upon which the modern science rests. 

 More recently BERTHELOT (the undisputed head of French 

 chemistry, and perhaps the most versatile of modern 

 chemists), MOISSAN, BECQUEREL, CURIE, and others 

 still alive, have worthily continued the great national 

 tradition. 



Dalton's rudimentary atomic theory required the prin- 

 ciple of Lavoisier as its necessary foundation. To its 

 development, GAY-LUSSAC contributed the law of 

 volumes and a study of the radical of cyanogen, AMPERE 



1 [Drafting Committee: W. D. BANCROFT, Cornell University; 

 F. B. DAINS, University of Kansas; L. J. HENDERSON, Harvard 

 University. ED.] 



69 



