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Charles-Adolphe Wurtz Jaime Wisniak*

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Charles-Adolphe Wurtz Jaime Wisniak* PARA QUITARLE EL POLVO La química en la historia, para la enseñanza. Charles-Adolphe Wurtz Jaime Wisniak* Resumen Chimique de France and the Association Française Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) fue uno de los pour l’Avancement des Sciences. químicos más importantes del siglo diecinueve y sus investigaciones ejercieron una poderosa influencia Life and career en el desarrollo de la química. Su nombre está Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (Figure 1) was born in Wol- asociado estrechamente con síntesis químicas muy fisheim, a small village near Strasbourg, on Novem- conocidas de las cuales la más importante es la de ber 26, 1817 and died in Paris, on May 12, 1884, the alcanos por la acción del sodio sobre sus derivados eldest child of the three children of Jean-Jacques halogenados. Desarrolló las fórmulas de los ácidos Wurtz (1787-1845) and Sophie Kreiss. His father was fosforoso e hipofosforoso, descubrió el oxicloruro a Lutheran pastor of considerable literary culture, de fósforo, las aminas, los glicoles y el butanol ter- but with an introvert personality; his mother came ciario, un método práctico para la síntesis de ésteres from a well-educated family, was particularly cheer- (incluyendo la glicerina), la reacción aldólica, y efec- ful and sweet-tempered and was an intimate friend tuó un estudio a fondo del ácido láctico. Aparte de and confident of her son until her death in 1878. estos descubrimientos, jugó un papel importante en Sofia’s two brothers, Théodore (professor of Greek el desarrollo de la teoría estructural. Como Decano at the protestant gymnasium and later at the Faculté de la Facultad de Medicina de París y profesor de la de Théologie) and Adolphe Kreiss, were frequent Sorbona estuvo en el centro de la reorganización de visitors to the Wurtz’s home and it is very probable la educación superior francesa, muchos de cuyos that from their contact Adolphe acquired many of mejores aspectos se conservan hoy en día. Fue uno de the intellectual abilities that he would later show in los fundadores de la Sociedad Química de Francia y his academic career. de la Sociedad Francesa para el Avance de la Ciencia. In 1826 Jean Jacques Wurtz was appointed to the church of Bergzabern in the Palatinate, and shortly Abstract thereafter to the church of St. Pierre-le-Jeune in Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) was one of the Strasburg. There, on July 1826, Adolphe entered the most important chemists of the nineteenth century local Gymnase Protestant, an institution controlled and whose researches exerted a powerful influence by the Lutheran Augsburg Confession. According to in the development of chemistry. His name is closely Carneiro (1993) the Gymnasium had been founded related to well-known chemical syntheses, the most in 1538 by Jean Sturm (1507-1589), a German Lu - important one being that of alkanes by the action of theran reformed, who advocated and practiced the sodium on their halogenated derivatives. He devel- propagation of knowledge through teaching and oped the formula of phosphorous and hypophos- publication. This institution was highly regarded in phorous acids, he discovered phosphorus oxychlo- the educational circle; it had resisted several attempts ride, amines, glycols, and tert-butanol, a practical by the Ministry of Instruction to integrate it into the method for the synthesis of esters (including glycer- official Lycée program, particularly after the anti ine), the aldol reaction, and did an elaborate investi- clerical atmosphere that was prevalent after gation of lactic acid. In addition to these discoveries, the Revolution. The Gymnasium was linked to the he played a fundamental role in the building of the Protestant Faculty, which from the previous century structural theory. As Dean of the Faculty of Medi- had developed a cosmopolitan tradition by attracting cine of Paris and Professor at the Sorbonne, he was European students and professors and whose cur- at the origin of a reorganization of higher education, riculum integrated music, physical education, lan- of which many of its best characteristics are still guages, and science. Like the majority of the Alsatian present. He was one of the founders of the Société bourgeoisie, by enrolling in the Gymnasium, Wurtz benefited from a bilingual education, which provided access to both French and German cultures *Department of Chemical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel 84105. In addition to his formal education, in 1828 [email protected] Wurtz also attended on a voluntary basis a course on Recibido: 12 de agosto de 2004; aceptado: 15 de octubre de botany, which awakened in him an interest in natural 2004. history. This interest was complemented by one on Abril de 2005 347 PARA QU ITARLE EL POLVO the theories of Lorenz Oken Etudes sur l’Albumine et sur la Fibrine , which gained (1779-1851), whose book Wurtz him a medal from the Faculty. In his thesis he described enjoyed reading throughout his a method for the purification of soluble albumin and life (Carneiro, 1993). Oken was argued for a difference between albumin of blood a German naturalist whose and the albumin of an egg (Wurtz, 1844a). speculations that plants and ani- After graduation his father authorized him to go mals are made up of tiny living for a year to Giessen, where Justus von Liebig (1803- ‘infusoria’ led to the cell theory 1873) had opened the first laboratory for students. (1779-1851). There he met August Wilhelm Hofmann (1818- According to Charles 1892), who later complemented his work on the Friedel (1832-1899), Wurtz’s amines and became his biographer. Under Liebig’s classmate and colleague, during direction Wurtz began his research training with a the eight years that Adolphe at- study of hypophosphorous acid in an attempt to tended the Gymnasium (1826- decide between the conflicting interpretation and 1834), he worked industriously formulas of Pierre Louis Dulong’s (1785-1838) and steadily at the various sub- and Heinrich Rose (1795-1864). Impressed b jects taught to him, but did not Wurtz’s abilities Liebig entrusted him with the trans - Figure 1. Charles-Adolphe Wurtz. particularly distinguish himself lation of some his papers into French. Wurtz sent in any one, although he ob- these translations to Paris for insertion in the Annales tained several prizes for diligence, one for geogra- de Chimie et de Physique; they were the means of phy, one for memory and elocution, besides men- bringing Wurtz into contact with some of the leading tions for history and geography, for Latin and Greek French men of science, and in particular with the translation, mathematics, and French verse. These increasingly powerful Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800- achievements were not enough for his father and led 1884) (Williamson, 1885). him to remark that he did not expect his son to do Wurtz completed his Wanderjahr in Austria dur- anything outstanding in life (Friedel, 1885). ing the autumn of 1842 and returned to Strasburg Adolphe left the Gymnase in 1834, after taking with letters of recommendation from Liebig. In 1844 the degree of Bachélier ès Lettres. His father wanted he left Strasburg to Paris where he worked for a short him to follow his steps and study theology. After time with Antoine Jerôme Balard (1802-1876) at the much arguing and after being given the choice be- Sorbonne. Afterwards he transferred to Dumas pri- tween religious or medical studies, the young man vate laboratory, in the Rue Cuvier, where Auguste decided on a medical course at the University of Cahours (1834-1910), Hermann Lewy (1813-1878), Strasburg. The decision was probably influenced on and Jules Bouis (1822-1886) were also working (Wil- the one hand by the fact that the curriculum included liamson, 1885). a fair amount of chemistry and experimental work, Between 1844 and 1845 Wurtz undertook the and on the other, the advise of his classmate who was translation into German of Charles Fréderic Ger - destined to be a distinguished chemist and in later hardt’s (1816-1856) first book, Précis de Chimie Or- years collaborate with Wurtz in the publication of the ganique. In this book, Gerhardt introduced the con- Dictionnaire de Chimie (Wurtz, 1868-1878). In Stras- cept of homology (a series of homologues was a burg, Adolphe was placed with Dr. Schneiter, a series of compounds the successive members of friend of the family. which differed by CH 2) and presented his system Wurtz soon became (1835) second and before of nomenclature and classification (see below). As long full assistant in the chemical and pharmaceuti- Gerhardt mentioned, the main difficulty of this trans- cal department. After a competitive examination in lation was that the German systematic names did not 1839, he was appointed Chef des Travaux Chimiques de express the genus a species to which a compound la Faculté, on which occasion he wrote the essay belonged and that was precisely the novelty of his Histoire Chimique de la Bile à l’État Sain et à l’État nomenclature (Carneiro, 1993). Pathologique. He fulfilled the duties of the new post In 1845 Wurtz was appointed Dumas’s prépa- under the direction of Amédée Cailliot (1805-1884) rateur at the Faculté de Médicine and four years later until he left Strasburg (Williamson, 1885). he took over Dumas course on organic chemistry, In August 13, 1843 he took the degree of Doctor who was prevented by his political and administra - of Medicine and on this occasion he read a thesis tive occupations from attending to his professional 348 Educación Química 16[2] PARA QUITARLE EL POLVO duties (Williamson, 1885). It was during this stage of among them Archibald Scott Couper (1831-1892), his professional life that Wurtz made his great dis- Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (1832-1906), Alexander covery of composite ammonias, which had such an Mikhailovich Butlerov (1828-1886), James Mason important influence on the progress of chemistry, Crafts (1839-1917), Alexandre Leon Etard (1852- and which gave him the clue to the constitution of 1910), Friedel, Joseph Achiles Le Bel (1847-1930), the vegetable alkaloids (Wurtz, 1848a,b; 1849a,b; Edmund von Lippmann (1857-1940), Jean Marcet 1851).
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