Paris, France/parisG364
Previous | Home | NextFrom this photo it is seen that from Rue Jussieu northeastward, the construction is modern; it is the continuation of the Pierre et Marie Curie Université Paris 6. About the location of the trees, on the left (northwest side of the street), was the famous laboratory of Dumas, which he built here in 1838. From this time until 1852, when he returned to politics, all the chemists who wanted to learn and succeed went through this laboratory. Dumas' effect on the "Rediscovery of the Elements" was indirect but profound. With his measurement of densities of elements and compounds, he was able to determine accurate molecular weights (today termed "molar masses") which were utilized in the assembly of the Periodic Table. He was able to visualize hydrogen being substituted by chlorine in an organic molecule, thus anticipating covalent bonding -- in direct philosophical contradiction to Berzelius, with the dualistic view that all bonding was ionic.
