TOWARDS A CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS.
DUMAS, JEAN BAPTISTE-ANDRE & PIERRE PELLETIER.
Recherches sur la Composition élémentaire et sur quelques propriétes caractéristiques des bases salifiables organiques.
Paris, Crochard, 1823.
8vo. In contemporary half calf with gilt lettering spine and five raised bands. The original wrappers withbound in the back. In "Annales de Chimie et de Physique", tome 24. Entire volume offered. Paper label pasted on to top of spine. Two stamps to verso of title-page and stamos to verso of all plates. A few light occassional brownspots, otherwise a fine copy. Pp. 163-191. [Entire volume: 448 pp. + 4 folded plates.
First appearance of Dumas and Pelletier's importent paper in which they analyzed nine alkaloids by combustion and found for the first time the number of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in them. Dumas' name is still associated with the two procedures which he devised here, the determination of vapor density and combustion analysis. "The most important problem with which Dumas was concerned throughout his career was the classification of chemical substances. He sought to devise comprehensive classificatory schemes for organic compounds and for the elements. Dumas’s earliest contribution to organic chemistry was his study of nine alkaloids, published in 1823, jointly with Pierre Pelletier.1 He analyzed the elemental constituents of these organic “bases” and attempted to prove that their relative proportions of oxygen followed Dalton’s law of multiple proportions. He had embraced the ideas of the two reigning theories in contemporary chemistry: dualism, with its division of substances into electronegative (acid) and electropositive (alkaline); and atomism, which Dalton had used to explain his law. Dumas spent the next few years attempting to create an adequate system of classification of organic compounds based upon these two theories."(DSB). The Present volume also contain papers by Faraday, Becquerel and many other.
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