Cy ee a een eee nn re ee ey ae hee Nee ee et Te a Pea ee cee oe 
JSean- Baptiste-André Dumas. 289 
Art. XXXVII—Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas; by J. P. 
CooKE.* 
JEAN-BAptistE-ANDRE DuMAS was born at Alais, in the 
south of France, July 14, 1800. His father belonyed to an an- 
cient family, was a man of culture, and held the position of 
clerk to the municipality of Alais. The son was educated at 
the college of his native place, and appears to have been des- 
tined by his parents for the naval service. But the anarchy 
i 
an earnest zeal for scientific investigation. The laboratory of 
the pharmacy gave him the necessary opportunities for ex- 
perimenting, and an observation which he made of the definite 
proportions of water contained in various commercial salts, 
later was more fully developed by Hermann Kopp 
About this time, young b 
der an important service to one of the most distinguished 
physicians of Geneva, whose name is associated with the bene- 
ficial uses of iodine in cases of goitre. It had occurred to Dr. 
Coindet that burnt sponge, then generally used as a remedy 
or that disease, might owe its efficacy to the presence of a 
small amount of iodine; and on referring the question to 
Dumas, the young chemist not only proved the presence of 
iodine in the sponge, but also indicated the best method of ad- 
ministering what proved to be almost a specific remedy. It 
was in connection with this investigation that Dumas’s name 
1 iene the Proceedings of the American Academy of Science vol. xix, Boston, 
