Jean-Baptiste Dumas - Scientific Work

Scientific Work

Dumas was one of the first to criticise the electro-chemical doctrines of Jöns Jakob Berzelius, which at the time his work began were widely accepted as the true theory of the constitution of compound bodies, and opposed a unitary view to the dualistic conception of the Swedish chemist. In a paper on the atomic theory, published in 1826, he anticipated to a remarkable extent some ideas which are frequently supposed to belong to a later period; and the continuation of these studies led him to the ideas about substitution (metalepsis) which were developed about 1839 into the theory (Older Style Theory) that in organic chemistry there are certain types which remain unchanged even when their hydrogen is replaced by an equivalent quantity of a halide element. Many of his well-known researches were carried out in support of these views, one of the most important being that on the action of chlorine on acetic acid to form trichloroacetic acid – a derivative of essentially the same character as the acetic acid itself.

In an 1826 paper, he described his method for ascertaining vapour densities, and the redeterminations which he undertook by its aid of the atomic weights of carbon and oxygen proved the forerunners of a long series which included some thirty of the elements, the results being mostly published in 1858–1860. He showed "in all elastic fluids observed under the same conditions, the molecules are placed at equal distances".

In 1833, Dumas developed a method for estimating the amount of nitrogen in an organic compound, founding modern analysis methods.

Dumas showed that kidneys remove urea from the blood.

Dumas established new values for the atomic mass of thirty elements, setting the value for hydrogen to 1.

The classification of organic compounds into homologous series was advanced as one consequence of his researches into the acids generated by the oxidation of the alcohols.