VIII.
JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANDRÉ DUMAS.[K]
Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas was born at Alais, in the south of France, July 14, 1800. His father belonged to an ancient family, was a man of culture, and held the position as clerk to the municipality of Alais. The son was educated at the college of his native place, and appears to have been destined by his parents for the naval service. But the anarchy and bloodshed which attended the downfall of the First Empire produced such an aversion to a military life that his parents abandoned their plan, and apprenticed him to an apothecary of the town. He remained in this situation, however, but a short time; for, owing to the same sad causes, he had formed an earnest desire to leave his home, and, his parents yielding to his wish, he traveled on foot to Geneva in 1816, where he had relatives who gave him a friendly welcome, and where he found employment in the pharmacy of Le Royer.
At that time Geneva was the center of much scientific activity, and young Dumas, while discharging his duties in the pharmacy, had the opportunity of attending lectures on botany by M. de Candolle, on physics by M. Pictet, and on chemistry by M. Gaspard de la Rive; and from these lectures he acquired an earnest zeal for scientific investigation. The laboratory of the pharmacy gave him the necessary opportunities for experimenting, and an observation which he made of the definite proportions of water contained in various commercial salts, although yielding no new results, gained for him the attention and friendship of De la Rive. Soon after we find the young philosopher attempting to deduce the volumes of the atoms in solid and liquid bodies by carefully determining their specific gravities, and thus anticipating a method which thirty years later was more fully developed by Hermann Kopp.
About this time young Dumas had the good fortune to render an important service to one of the most distinguished physicians of Geneva, whose name is associated with the beneficial uses of iodine in cases of goitre. It had occurred to Dr. Coindet that burned sponge, then generally used as a remedy for that disease, might owe its efficacy to the presence of a small amount of iodine; and on referring the question to Dumas, the young chemist not only proved the presence of iodine in the sponge, but also indicated the best method of administering what proved to be almost a specific remedy. It was in connection with this investigation that Dumas's name first appears in public. The discovery produced a great sensation, and for many years the manufacture of iodine preparations brought both wealth and reputation to the pharmacy of Le Royer.
Soon after, Dumas formed an intimacy with Dr. J. L. Prévost, then recently returned from pursuing his studies in Edinburgh and Dublin, and was induced to undertake a series of physiological investigations, which for a time withdrew him from his strictly chemical studies. Several valuable papers on physiological subjects were published by Prévost and Dumas, which attracted the notice of Alexander von Humboldt, who on visiting Geneva, in 1822, sought out Dumas and awakened in him a desire to seek a wider field of activity than his present position opened to him. In consequence he removed to Paris in 1823, where the reputation he had so deservedly earned at Geneva won for him a cordial reception at what was then the chief center of scientific study in Europe. La Place, Berthollet, Vauquelin, Gay-Lussac, Thenard, Alexandre Brongniart, Cuvier, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Arago, Ampère, and Poisson, all manifested their interest in the young investigator. Dumas was soon appointed Répétiteur de Chimie at the École Polytechnique, and also Lecturer at the Athenæum, an institution founded and maintained by public subscription, for the purpose of exciting popular interest in literature and science; and from this beginning his advancement to the highest position which a man of science can occupy in France was extremely rapid.
In 1826 he married Mdlle. Herminie Brongniart, the eldest daughter of Alexandre Brongniart, the illustrious geologist, an alliance which not only brought him great happiness, and at the time greatly advanced his social position, but also in after years made his house one of the chief resorts of the scientific society of Paris. The many who have shared its generous hospitality will appreciate how greatly, for more than half a century, Madame Dumas has aided the work and extended the influence of her noble husband.
In 1828-'29 Dumas united with Théodore Olivier and Eugène Péclet in founding the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, an institution which met with great success, and in which, as Professor of Chemistry, Dumas rendered most efficient service for many years; and in 1878 had the very good fortune to aid in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his own foundation, and to see it acknowledged as among the most important and efficient scientific institutions of the world. In 1832 Dumas succeeded Gay-Lussac as Professor at the Sorbonne; in 1835 he succeeded Thenard at the École Polytechnique; and in 1839 he succeeded Deyeux at the École de Médecine. Thus before the age of forty he filled successively, and for some time simultaneously, all the important professorships of chemistry in Paris except one. This exception was that of the College of France, with which he was never permanently connected, although it was there that he delivered his famous course on the History of Chemical Philosophy, when temporarily supplying the place of Thenard.
Dumas early recognized the importance of laboratory instruction in chemistry, for which there were no facilities at Paris when he first came to what was then the center of the world's science; and in 1832 founded a laboratory for research at his own expense. This laboratory, first established at the Polytechnic School, was removed to the Rue Cuvier in 1839, where it remained until broken up by the Revolution of 1848. The laboratory was small, and Dumas would receive only a few advanced students, and these on terms wholly gratuitous. Among these students were Piria, Stas, Melsens, Leblanc, Lalande, and Lewy, with whose aid he carried on many of his important investigations. By the Revolution of 1848 Dumas's activities were for a time diverted into political channels; but under the Second Empire his laboratory was re-established at the Sorbonne, and in 1868 was removed to the École Centrale.
The political episode of Dumas's life was the natural result of an active mind with wide sympathies, which recognizes in the pressing demands of society its highest duty. The political and social upheaval of 1848 seemed at the time to endanger the stability in France of everything which a cultivated and learned man holds most dear; and Dumas was not one to consider his own preferences when he felt he could aid in averting the calamities which threatened his country. Immediately after the Revolution of February, he accepted a seat in the Legislative Assembly offered him by the electors of the Arrondissement of Valenciennes. Shortly afterward the President of the Republic called him to fill the office of Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. During the Second Empire he was elevated to the rank of Senator, and shortly after his entrance into the Senate he became Vice-President of the High Council of Education. In order to reform the abuses into which many of the higher educational institutions of Paris had fallen, be accepted a place in the Municipal Council of Paris, over which he subsequently presided from 1859 to 1870.