Different shades of Newton: Herman Boerhaave on Newton mathematicus, philosophus, and optico-chemicus.

In this paper I will probe into Herman Boerhaave's (1668-1738) appropriation of Isaac Newton's natural philosophy. It will be shown that Newton's work served multiple purposes in Boerhaave's oeuvre, for he appropriated Newton's work differently in different contexts and in different episodes in his career. Three important episodes in, and contexts of, Boerhaave's appropriation of Newton's natural philosophical ideas and methods will be considered: 1710-11, the time of his often neglected lectures on the place of physics in medicine; 1715, when he delivered his most famous rectorial address; and, finally, 1731/2, in publishing his Elementa chemiae. Along the way, I will spell out the implications of Boerhaave's case for our understanding of the reception, or use, of Newton's ideas more generally.

[Guislain Decrombecque (1797-1870) and Alfred Wagon (1849-1928) originally of Auguste Béhal career (1859-1941)?]

Auguste Béhal (1859-1941), Maître de Conférences (Assistant Professor) at the Sorbonne then Full Professor at the School of Pharmacy (Paris), leads many vocations among these students (Blaise, Delaby, Delepine, Detoeuf, Fourneau, Sommelet, Tiffeneau, Valeur, etc.). However, why is he embraced the vocation chemist organic chemist ? This choice is undoubtedly dictated by the meeting of Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) and Charles Friedel (1832-1899) who made mature in him a passion for chemical research during his formation. Nevertheless, the historical context of the city of Lens, a modest city of 2.500 inhabitants in the north of France, and the influence of two other characters : Guislain Decrombecque (1797-1870), agronomist, and Alfred Wagon (1849-1928), 2nd class pharmacist, are also noteworthy. We will outline how these two people have directly and indirectly contributed to the Béhal career.

[Vauquelin: route from a thatched cottage to Institute of France]. / Vauquelin : itinéraire d'une chaumière à l'Institut.

Nicolas Louis Vauquelin was born in a little thatched cottage in Saint-André-d'Hébertot, in Normandy, on May 16th 1763. He went to Rouen and then to Paris where he met Antoine de Fourcroy and became his co-worker and his friend. They published together sixty articles, and he published alone a hundred and twenty articles. He became a pharmacist in 1787. He occupied simultaneously or not many important University positions. He was Associate Professor at École polytechnique, Professor at École des mines, Professor at Collège de France, Director of School of Pharmacy, Professor at Museum d'histoire naturelle, Professor at Faculty of Medicine. He became Empire Knight, Member of Institute of France, Member and President of Academy of Medicine, Member and President of Society of Pharmacy. He discovered and isolated chrome and discovered beryllium. He was a very efficient professor and many of his students were well-known scientists. He died on November 14th 1829.

An attenuated philosophical gentleman.

Dr. Joseph Black had at one time, a house near us to the west. He was a striking and beautiful person; tall, very thin, and cadaverously pale; his hair carefully powdered, though there was little of it except what was collected in a long thin queue; his eyes dark, clear and large, like deep pools of pure water. He wore black speckless clothes, silk stockings, silver buckles, and either a slim green umbrella, or a genteel brown cane. The general frame and air were feeble and slender. The wildest boy respected Black. No lad could be irreverent toward a man so pale, so gentle, so elegant and so illustrious. So he glided, like a spirit, through our rather mischievous sportiveness, unharmed. He died seated, with a bowl of milk upon his knee, of which his ceasing to be did not spill a drop; a departure which it seemed, after the event, might have been foretold of this attenuated philosophical gentleman.

[André Detoeuf (1884-1931): pharmacist, industrialist and chemist]. / André Detoeuf (1884-1931): pharmacien, industriel et chimiste.

During the transition between the 19th and 20th century, Auguste Béhal (1859-1941), a native of Lens (France, Pas-de-Calais), renewed organic chemistry teaching at the Paris School of Pharmacy by the introduction of atomic notation and pre-electronic mechanisms. This revolution primarily affects the future pharmacists. Thus, Béhal becomes the leader of a "School" of thought and directs the work of many students called "Béhaliens": Ernest Fourneau (1872-1949), Marc Tiffeneau (1873-1945), Marcel Sommelet (1877-1952), etc. Among these students, three are also from Lens: Amand Valeur (1870-1927), Raymond Delaby (1891-1958) and André Detoeuf (1884-1931). The latter, initially, will follow the footsteps of his older siblings (pharmacy studies, writing a thesis under the direction of Behal); however, despite having started a career in academia, he left his post for the industry (Etablissements Kuhlmann and Billault).

Louis Jacques Thenard's chemistry courses at the College de France, 1804-1835.

This article is concerned with the public courses and lecture demonstrations given by Louis Jacques Thenard at the College de France during the first decades of the nineteenth century. The expectations and needs of Thenard's auditors will be studied in order to understand the role played by chemistry courses at the College in the context of the growing and changing Parisian teaching market during the first third of the nineteenth century. The preparation and performance of lecture demonstrations was the main driving force of several major changes in the premises and the personnel associated with the chair of chemistry. Our analysis of the parallel process of expansion and functional differentiation of spaces and personnel will show the multiple interactions taking place between the research and teaching activities developed by Thenard and his team of assistants and students.

[Hugues Delmas (1903-1945), chemist, artist and deportation victim]. / Hugues Delmas (1903-1945) pharmacien, artiste, et victime de la déportation.

Biographic evocation of a chemist and artist whose life and work were dramatically breaked off during World War II and whose days were over in the nazi extermination camps.

[The influence of pharmacists on the development of pharmacy and chemistry as diciplines]. / Der Einfluss von Apothekern auf die Disziplingenese von Pharmazie und Chemie.

The aim of this article is to trace some features of the historical development of chemistry as an academic discipline in its relation to the emergence of pharmaceutical science. Franz Joel (1508-1579) was one of the first pharmacists whose work became very important for development of chemistry since the 17th century lectures in materia medica and in iatro-chemistry were frequent realized in university pharmacy. In the 18th century pharmacists were in some cases the precursors to professors of chemistry. In the paper there is also given a summary of the importance for the development of chemistry of J. B. Trommsdorff, S. F. Hermbstaedt, A. P. J. Du Menil and L. F. Bley.

Liebig, his university professor Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner (1783-1857) and his problematic relation with romantic natural philosophy.

The chemist and physicist K. W. G. Kastner is almost unknown today, even though during his lifetime he was among the most respected of German physical scientists. Only the fact that Justus Liebig studied and did his doctorate with him seems to be of (small enough) interest today. Kastner's life and career are shown to be extremely worth analyzing since, like Liebig himself, he succeeded in making his way from being a pharmacist to becoming a university professor. He published numerous textbooks as well as journals, he had a great number of students and he was a popular lecturer. In striking contrast to this are the negative statements of his student Liebig about Romantic Natural Philosophy and about Kastner himself, despite his being of crucial importance for Liebig's career as a teacher and mentor. These critical statements, for which a variety of explanations are known, markedly prejudiced Kastner's reputation for posterity.

Breeding chemists in Giessen.

The factors that contributed to Liebig's success in founding a research school at Giessen have been well known since the publication of Jack Morrell's seminal paper in 1972. Here the familiar Liebig-Giessen story is re-centred in a local geographical and historical context. Historical and political factors played a role in calling Liebig to Giessen and in ousting the existing chair holder, Zimmerman. Working in partnership with the government, Liebig's developed pharmacy teaching as part of the state's plan of modernization. Liebig's success necessarily led to the expansion of the laboratory after 1833. Comparisons with Buff's and Hundeshagen's attempts to do for physics and forestry what Liebig achieved in chemistry show that the encouragement of private enterprise was a key feature of the Hessen-Darmstadt government's strategy for the modernisation of the university.

[Brief notes on the life and works of the Bordeaux pharmacist Jean-Pierre Prat]. / Notes brèves sur la vie et les travaux du pharmacien bordelais Jean-Pierre Prat.

After a short biography of Jean-Pierre Prat, pharmacist, chemist and industrial unjustly forgotten, we discuss his scientific work which comprised varied fundamental scientific studies (fluor isolation essays, research on gold derivatives, on a mineral of Ariege, on the volumetric dosage of nitrogen on the nature of the sweet principle of the Bordeaux white wines ...). We emphasize also his work in the field of applied chemistry.

[The Norman Francois Rene Curaudau (1765-1813), pharmacist, unrecognized chemist]. / Le Normand Francois Rene Curaudau (1765-1813), pharmacien, chimiste meconnu.

Accepted as member of Paris' Pharmacist College at 22 years, Curaudau was born to Sees in Orne department. He settled pharmacist at Vendome, then in Paris in 1800 where he devoted entirely to chemistry and to adjustment of industrial processes and thermal apparatus. Industrial, he exploited some of his own inventions. Preparation methods for alkaline metals and alum, process adjustments for tanning, soap fabrication, laundering and liquids evaporation, construction of new types of economic stoves and furnaces, and particularly his determining experiments on the chlorine structure, constitute the more important scientific works of this unrecognized chemist which is the subject of this study.

[Nicolas and Camille Husson, chemists, archeologists, researchers ... in toul, during the second part of the 19th century]. / Nicolas et Camille Husson, pharmaciens, archéologues, chercheurs ... à Toul dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle.

Nicolas Husson (1814-1890) was chemist in Toul from 1843-1844 to 1875-1876. He was also a member of the town council and deputy of the mayor, in charge of questions interesting education and attendance. Collector, author of some 40 papers, he was very interested in archeology, geology and hygiene in the neighbourhood of Toul. He explored there holes such "Les Trous de Sainte-Reine" and "Le Trou des Celtes". His son Camille (1843-1886) was first a military chemist but he joined soon his father. He was essentially an independant researcher in chemical and alimentary analysis, toxicology and hygiene. Also the author of numerous papers and archeologist, he became national correspondent of the Academy of medicine and chairman of the "Société de pharmacie de Lorraine".

[Lavoisier and the Parisian pharmacists of his time]. / Lavoisier et les pharmaciens parisiens de son temps (2e partie).

In the 17th and 18th centuries, pharmacists were highly competent in experimentation and well-versed in chemical manipulations. Of necessity, Lavoisier had extensive rapport with them. Presented here are the attitudes regarding him by pharmacists who had their own shops during the twenty years preceding the Revolution. There were his adversaries (one implacable: Baumé; the other lightly mocking: Demachy), his defenders (one timorous: Bronigniart; the other enthusiastic: Cadet de Vaux), and finally and above all those who remained indifferent, although for the most part they had worked for brief periods with Lavoisier (Cadet de Gassicourt, Déyeux, Mitouard and Quinquet). And yet, Baumé and Cadet de Vaux, who were in opposition when faced with the ideas of the new chemistry, joined in their efforts to attempt to get Lavoisier out of prison, at the risk of being guillotined. Finally, the greatest hommage rendered to the pharmacists came from Lavoisier himself, who believing that he would be released from prison denied all of his assets, envisaged himself becoming a pharmacist.

[Did Lavoisier benefit from the teachings of the apothecary Guillaume-François Rouelle?]. / Lavoisier a-t-il bénéficié de l'enseignement de l'apothicaire Guillaume-François Rouelle?

Following a review of the biography and of the chemical doctrines of G.-F. Rouelle (1703-1770) and having examined the relationship between Rouelle's scientific heritage and the work of Lavoisier, the author's response tends to the negative to the question posed in the title of his article.

[Pierre-François Nicolas (1743-1816), apothecary, physician, chemistry teacher on the eve of the French Revolution]. / Pierre-François Nicolas (1743-1816) apothicaire, médecin, professeur de chimie à la Faculté de médecine de Nancy, à la veille de la Révolution.

Pierre-François Nicolas, was born in Saint-Mihiel in 1743, studied in this town and in St-Nicolas-de-Port near Nancy. At first he has been a military apothecary during the "Guerre de Sept-Ans". Then he studied pharmacy in Nancy and was received in 1768 at the "Maîtrise de pharmacie". With the physician Henri Michel du Tennatar, he created a teaching of chemistry for medicine students and became the professor of chemistry of the Faculty of Medicine in 1781. During these years, he published some research results about hydrology, distillery, biochemistry (phosphorus in bone), toxicology, dyeing... At the end of 1783, he succeeded in the realization of a balloon and he played an important part in Nancy during the French Revolution. Professor at the "Ecole de médecine" in Strasbourg for some weeks, then in Nancy at the "Ecole centrale" and at the "Société de santé", he left Nancy towards the mid-1798. Staying in Paris for two or three years he probably worked with Fourcroy and perhaps Chaptal and Berthollet. In the early years of the nineteenth century he was appointed professor in the "Ecole centrale" du Calvados" and some years after at the "Faculté des sciences" in Caen. His latest significant work with Gueudeville was devoted to the detection of sugar in the urine of diabetic patients. Retired in 1811 Pierre-François Nicolas died in Caen in 1816.

[Was Louis-Joseph Proust (1754-1826) a pharmacist?]. / Louis-Joseph Proust (1754-1826) etait-il pharmacien?

Proust's first formulation of the law of definite proportions was published in a paper on iron oxides (1794). He spent the major part of his professional life in Spain, where he contracted to take a teaching and searching position. He was apprenticed to his father to study pharmacy, and he studied chemistry with Hilaire-Marin Rouelle. His early interrupted education is shown through his abilities as an analyst, the persons with whom he was in communication, his share in manufacturers' assays and his researches towards health and food chemistry. More fundamental was his belief in natural principles of order as representative of the thought of the ideologues.