Jean Antoine Chaptal

JeanAntoine Chaptal , comte de Chanteloup, was a distinguished French chemist, physician, agronomist, industrialist, statesman, educator and philanthropist. His multifaceted career unfolded during one of the most brilliant periods in French science. In chemistry it was the time of Antoine Lavoisier, ClaudeLouis Berthollet, Louis Guyton de Morveau, AntoineFranois Fourcroy and Joseph GayLussac. Chaptal made his way into this elite company in Paris beginning in the 1780s, and established his credentials as a serious scientist most definitely with the publication of his first major scientific treatise, the lments de chimie . His treatise brought the term nitrogen into the revolutionary new chemical nomenclature developed by Lavoisier. By 1795, at the newly established cole Polytechnique in Paris, Chaptal shared the teaching of courses in pure and applied chemistry with ClaudeLouis Berthollet, the doyen of the science. In 1798, Chaptal was elected a member of the prestigious Chemistry Secti

Chaptal was born in Nojaret in southwestern France, the youngest son of welltodo small landowners, Antoine Chaptal and Franoise Brunel. He was fortunate to have a rich uncle, Claude Chaptal, who was a prominent physician at Montpellier. The young Chaptals brilliant record at the area collges of Mende and Rodez encouraged his uncle to finance his way through medical school at the University of Montpellier, 177476. After receiving his degree of doctor of medicine, he persuaded his uncle to continue his support for three and onehalf years of postgraduate study in medicine and chemistry at Paris. There he attended courses on chemistry at the cole de Mdicine given by J.B.Bucquet, who was a friend of Lavoisier and instructor earlier of Berthollet. He returned to Montpellier in 1780 to a salaried chair in chemistry at the university, where his lectures were quickly acclaimed. He composed a first book, Mmoires de chimie, reporting on his early studies in chemistry. Also in 1781, he married Ann

Source: Wikipedia