7 o CHEMISTRY 



an independent formulation of the hypothesis of Avo- 

 gadro, DUMAS the idea of substitution, LAURENT and 

 GERHARDT the conception of types, PASTEUR the beau- 

 tiful and subtle theory of molecular asymmetry, LE BEL 

 and GUYE the fundamentals of stereochemistry. To 

 the development of organic chemistry, which served at 

 every later stage as the support of the growing atomic 

 theory, CHEVREUL contributed the explanation of the 

 constitution of the fats; DUMAS, RAOULT, GUYE, 

 WURTZ, ST.-GILLES, and BERTHELOT, a great variety of 

 important discoveries. Not less do inorganic chemistry 

 (through the labors of a large number of investigators), 

 crystallography (through the researches of ROME DE 

 L'IsLE and HAUY), and physical chemistry (through 

 those of BERTHOLLET and GAY-LUSSAC), take their 

 origin in France. Turning to another field, the begin- 

 nings of the science of metabolism are to be found in 

 the researches of LAVOISIER and LAPLACE, while the 

 labors of PASTEUR have revolutionized chemical biology 

 and created chemical pathology. The early develop- 

 ment of agricultural chemistry is illustrated by the 

 work of BOUSSINGAULT. And lastly the history of 

 chemistry has profited by many important investigations 

 of BERTHELOT and DUHEM. 



University instruction and research in France at the 

 present time may be summarized by mentioning the 

 best-known workers: 



Instruction at Paris. I. At the Sorbonne (faculty 

 of sciences): Mme. CURIE, professor of physics, the 

 co-discoverer (with her husband, who died in 1906) of 

 radium, the discoverer of polonium, and the author of a 

 series of investigations in the important field which 

 her own labors, extending Henri BECQUEREL'S discovery 

 of the radio-activity of uranium, have opened to science; 



