THE NUCLEUS THEORY OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

LAURENT, AUGUSTE.

Analyse du Spodumène de l'Arriège et de la Wichtyne. (+) Sur de nouveaux Chlorures et Bromures d'Hydrogéne carboné. (+) Sur la Nitronaphtalase, la Nitronaphtalèse et la Naphtalase. (+) Sur le Benzoyle et la Benzimide.

Paris, Crochard, 1835.

8vo. In contemporary half calf with gilt lettering to spine. In: "Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Par MM. Gay-Lussac et Arago.", 2e Series, tome 59, Entire volume offered. Wear to extremities, internally very fine and clean. Laurent's papers: pp. 107-111; 196-220; 376-397; 397-422. [Entire volume: 446,(2) pp.].

First printing of these importent papers in the history of organic chemistry explaining the differences to Dumas' law of substitutions, and introducing a "new type" and what he calls "fundamental and derived radicals". The introduction of the "Nucleus Theory" was the basis for the unitary theory formulated by Gerhardt.

"While studying the reactions of naphthalene and its compounds with the halogens and nitric acid, Laurent was from the start characteristically concerned with the construction of an explanatory theory that would account for these phenomena. Like most creative scientists, he generalized his solution to a specific problem through the imaginative use of analogy, leading to the elaboration of the first comprehensive theory adequate for dealing with the whole domain of contemporaneous organic chemistry." (DSB).

"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).

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