LAURENT, AUGUSTE. - FIRST CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND THE "SUBSTITUTION THEORY".

Sur la Chlorophéniise et les Acides Chlorophénisique et Chlorophénèsique. (+) Sur l'Acide Camphorique. (+) Essai sur l'Action du Chlore sur la Liqueur des Hollandais et sur quelques Ethers.

Paris, Crochard, 1836. Contemp. hcalf with the orig. printed yellow wrappers bound at end. Spine gilt. Slightly rubbed along edges. Two stamps on verso of titlepage. In: "Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Par MM. Gay-Lussac et Arago.", 2e Series, Tome 63. 448 pp. (entire volume offered). Some scattered brownspots. Laurent's papers: pp. 27-45, pp. 207-219 a. pp. 377-389.

First apperance of 2 milestone papers in organic chemistry, in which Laurent "converted Dumas' theory into a real theory theory of substitution by making the importent addition that when a compound undergoes chlorination, the chlorine takes the place , and, as it were, plays the part of the hydrogen, which is removed."(Findley). In these papers Laurent published his table of chloridised compounds, many being then unknown. His table is THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT A CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS based on the generating hydrocarbonates. (Partington IV, p. 382-83). His system of classification had a profound influence on the development of organic chemistry.

"A founder of modern organic chemistry, Laurent was one of the most important chemists of the nineteenth century. He considered the behavior of matter to be a manifestation of its intimate internal structure, which one cannot determine with certainty but which one has to investigate if one wants to understand. Laurent’s preoccupation was to construct a method that could guide the chemist forward along this path, from facts to their causes. He was the first chemist to intimately associate crystallo-graphic data and chemical studies. Louis Pasteur and Charles Friedel later followed the way."(DSB).

The volume contains other notable papers: Gay-Lussac (5 papers), Boussingault, Pelouze, Justus Liebig etc. etc.

Order-nr.: 45010