DUMAS, (JEAN BAPTISTE-ANDRE) & (JUSTUS ) LIEBIG. - A NEW CLASSIFICATION IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY.

Note sur l'état actuel de la Chemie organique.

(Paris, Bachelier), 1837. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome V , No 17. (Entire issue offered). Pp. (567-) 572. Dumas & Liebig's paper: pp. (567-) 572.

First appearance of a historical paper in chemistry. stating a new way to organize organic chemistry.

When Liebig visited Paris in 1837, he persuaded Dumas to accept the ethyl theory, and in a joint memoir (written by Liebig) presented on 23 October 1837 to the Paris Academy (the paper offered) they asserted that "in inorganic chemistry the radicals are simple; in organic chemistry they are compounds - that is the sole difference. The laws of combination, the laws of reaction, are the same in the two branches of chemistry" (Partington, vol. IV, p. 351).

"In the paper "Note on the present state of organic chemistry" .... (Dumas and Liebig)) claim to have found the key to systematically organizing organic chemistry, basing research not on the elements, as in inorganic chemistry, but on the radicals. The radicals in organic chemistry act analogous to the elements in mineral chemistry, with the same general principles of combination and reaction."(Partington "Breakthroughs" 1837 C).

Order-nr.: 47237