![[Jean Baptiste Dumas]](ncd01906.jpg "Jean Baptiste Dumas; please do not write to ask about the image")
Chemist and senator, born Alais, France, 1800; died Cannes, France, 1884.
Alone or with others he carried on brilliant investigations which brought him into the front rank among chemists of the 19th century.
Invented a vapor density apparatus, made important experiments in the determination of atomic weights, and in alcohol and ether, discovered oxamide, was the author of the so-called "theory of substitution," and discriminated between atoms and molecules.
His lectures at the Sorbonne brought him further renown.
In 1849 he turned his attention to politics, eventually being made a senator.
He became a member of the French Academy in 1878.
A list of his papers was published in the "Catalogue of Scientific Papers of the Royal Society, London."
He was a consistent Catholic.
New Catholic Dictionary
