Our navigation bar is loading . . . . . .


Advertise on JCSM - Hear JCSM's Weekly Devotions via Podcast/RSS Feed! - Skip These Ads

You can advertise your site right here!Click here to learn more!

 10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings by Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.

 JCSM's Top 1000 Christian Sites - Free Traffic Sharing Service! Join the Online Christ-Centered Ministries!

-
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Return to the JCSM Study Center!

Encyclopedia Britannica



WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE (18171884)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 860 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WIL-YAK
WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE (18171884) , French chemist, was born on the 26th of November 1817 at Wolfisheim, near Strassburg, where his father was Lutheran pastor. When he left the Protestant gymnasium at Strassburg in 1834, his father allowed him to study medicine as next best to theology. He devoted himself specially to the chemical side of his profession with such success that in 1839 he was appointed " Chef des travaux chimiques " at the Strassburg faculty of medicine. After graduating there as M.D. in 1843, with a thesis on albumin and fibrin, he studied for a year under J. von
Liebig
  at Giessen, and then went to Paris, where he worked in J. B. A. Dumas's private laboratory. In 1845 he became assistant to Dumas at the Ecole de Medecine, and four years later began to give lectures on organic chemistry in his place. His laboratory at the Ecole de Medecine was very poor, and to supplement it he opened a private one in 185o in the Rue Garenciere; but soon afterwards the
house
  was sold, and the laboratory' had to be abandoned. In 185o he received the professorship of chemistry at the new Institut Agronomique at Versailles, but the Institut was abolished in 1852. In the following year the chair of organic chemistry at the faculty of medicine became vacant by the resignation of Dumas and the chair of
mineral
  chemistry and toxicology by the death of M. J. B. Orfila. The two were united, and
Wurtz
  appointed to the new post. In 1866 he undertook the duties of dean of the faculty of medicine. In this position. he exerted himself to secure the rearrangement and reconstruction of the buildings 'devoted to scientific instruction, urging that in the provision of properly equipped teaching laboratories France was much behind Germany (see his report Les Hautes Etudes pratiques clans les universiles allemandes, 1870). In 1875, resigning the office of dean but retaining the title of honorary dean, he became the first occupant of the chair of organic chemistry, which he induced the government to establish at the Sorbonne; but he had great difficulty in obtaining an adequate laboratory, and the building ultimately provided was not opened until after his death, which happened at Paris on the loth of May x884.
Wurtz
  was an honorary member of almost every scientific society in Europe. He was one of the founders of the Paris Chemical Society (1858), was its first secretary and thrice served as its president. In 188o he was vice-president and in 1881 president of the Academy, which he entered in 1867 in succession to T. J. Pelouze. He was made a senator in 1881.
Wurtz's first published
paper
  was on hypophosphorous acid (1842), and the continuation of his work on the acids of phosphorus (1845) resulted in the discovery of sulphophosphoric acid and phosphorus oxychloride, as well as of copper hydride. But his
original
  work was mainly in the domain of organic chemistry. Investigation of the cyanic ethers (1848) yielded a class of substances which opened out a new field in organic chemistry, for, by treating those ethers with caustic potash, he obtained methylamine, the simplest organic derivative of ammonia (1849), and later (1851) the compound ureas. In 1855, reviewing the various substances that had been obtained from glycerin, he reached the conclusion that glycerin is a
body
  of alcoholic nature formed on the type of three molecules of water, as common alcohol is on that of one, and was thus led (1856) to the discovery of the glycols or diatomic alcohols, bodies similarly related to the double water type. This discovery he worked out very thoroughly in investigations of ethylene oxide and the poly-ethylene alcohols. The oxidation of the glycols led him to homologues of lactic acid, and a controversy about the constitution of the latter with H. Kolbe resulted in the discovery of many new facts
and in a better understanding of the relations between the oxyand the amido-acids. In 1867 Wurtz prepared neurine synthetically by the action of trimethylamine on glycol-chlorhydrin, and in 1872 he discovered aldol, pointing out its double character as at once an alcohol and an aldehyde. In addition to this
list
  of some of the new substances he prepared, reference may be made to his work on abnormal vapour densities. While working on the olefines he noticed that a change takes place in the density of the vapour of amylene hydrochloride, hydrobromide, &c., as the temperature is increased, and in the gradual passage from a gas of approximately normal density to one of half-normal density he saw a powerful argument in favour of the view that abnormal vapour densities, such as are exhibited by sal-ammoniac or phosphorus pentachloride. are to be explained by dissociation. From 1865 onwards he treated this question in several papers, and in particular maintained the dissociation of vapour of chloral hydrate, in opposition to H. Sainte-Claire Deville and M. Berthelot.
For twenty-one years (1852-1872) Wurtz published in theAnnates de chimie et de physique abstracts of chemical work done out of France. The publication of his great Dictionnaire de chimie pure et appliquee, in which he was assisted by many other French chemists, was begun in 1869 and finished in 1878; two supplementary volumes were issued 188o-1886, and in 1892 the publication of a second supplement was begun. Among his books are Chimie medicale (1864), Lecons ilementaires de chimie moderne (1867), Theorie des atomes dons la conception du monde (1874), La Theorie atomique (1878), Progres de l'industrie des matieres colorantes artificielles (1876) and Traite de chimie biologique (188o-1885). His Histoire des doctrines chimiques, the introductory discourse to his Dictionnaire, but published separately in 1868, opens with the well-known dictum, " La chimie est une science francaise."
For his life and work, with a
list
  of his publications, see Charles Friedel's memoir in the Bulletin de la Societe Chimique (1885); also A. W. von Hofmann in the Bee. deut. chem. Gesellsch. (1887), re-printed in vol. iii. of his Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde (1888).


End of Article: WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE (18171884)


If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/WIL_YAK/WURTZ_CHARLES_ADOLPHE_18171884.html">
WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE (18171884)
</a>
(Previous)
WURTTEMBERG 		(Next)
WURZBURG

 


 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

The JCSM Study CenterAmerica's Christian FoundationSkeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and ExplainedNKJV Web Hosting and Services
JCSM's Sermons, Debates and the Bible on MP3The Online Christ-Centered MinistriesDo You Have A Web Site?  Your Ad Could Be Here!Seminary Notes and PapersThe Picturesque Photo Albums


Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present.


Kingdom Debt Solutions - Be Debt Free! Sport Logos - Quality Athletic Equipment The JCSM Study Center Your Ad Could Be Here! Launch A Successful Internet Organization or Business! Learn Guitar, Bass, or Piano in San Diego county!

You can advertise your site right here!

Free & Cheap Cell Phones  |  Cheap Long Distance Phone Service Carriers  |  Talk America Local Phone Service  |  Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare Cell Phone Plans & Companies  |  International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards  |  Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone Service  |  Wireless Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones

Dr. Jason Gastrich

Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.

 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries is directed by Dr. Jason Gastrich.  It was founded in 1997 and it exists to bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ.  JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, discussion boards, weekly html and mp3 devotionals, free email accounts, and much more.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA  92169
1-877-850-3878 or Email

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-2008.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Online First Aid and CPR Certification  .  The Online Christ Centered Ministries  .  The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained  .  The Inerrancy Discussion Board  .  Free Email Accounts  .  Home Equity Loans  .  JasonGastrich.com  .  The Missions, Apologetics, and Creation Bible Conference  .  Young Earth Creation Science  .  San Diego Music Lessons  .  10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings  .  Gastrich.net  .  Maximizing the Internet: 12 Keys to Success  .  Louisiana Baptist University  .  NKJV Web Hosting and Services  .  Michael Newdow  .  San Diego Soccer Training  . Christian Guitar Lessons  .  Jesus Christ Saves Ministries  .  Eternal Security