ANDREAS KURTZ 115 



exploding for ever the fundamental fallacies on 

 which chemical science had up to this time 

 been based. They had founded what is 

 historically known as "La Chimie Francaise," 

 to which the world is indebted not only for a 

 reform of chemical nomenclature, displacing 

 the "alchemistic jargon," which up to that 

 date had prevailed, but also for the establish- 

 ment and the arrangement of those facts on 

 which the system of modern chemistry is 

 grounded. 



The occupations of the factory proved full 

 of interest to young Kurtz, they incited him 

 to study, they called forth the powers with 

 which he was naturally endowed ; they brought 

 him into contact with several of those dis- 

 tinguished and eminent men who were the 

 instructors of the youth of France in the 

 natural sciences. Gay-Lussac was one of 

 his companions, and doubtless he would be 

 among the hundreds who crowded to listen 

 to the lectures of Berthollet and Thenard, 

 and to receive instruction from Fourcroy and 

 Vauquelin. Before he left France he had 

 become a thorough enthusiast in his calling. 

 It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that at 

 the age of thirty-three, when he emerged 

 from Parisian lift-, he had attained some 



