Edouard Grimaux

Édouard Louis Grimaux

Édouard Louis Grimaux (born July 3, 1835 in Rochefort , † May 2, 1900 in Paris ) was a French chemist , pharmacist and chemical historian .

In 1853 Grimaux became a 3rd class pharmacist in the Naval Hospital in Rochefort (where he had studied from 1852), became an officer and discharged from the military in 1858. From 1861 he had a pharmacy in Sainte-Hermine, but at the same time studied medicine. In 1865 he received his doctorate in medicine from the Sorbonne . In 1867 he gave up his pharmacy and after acquaintance with the chemist Alfred Naquet devoted himself to chemical and pharmaceutical research, especially organic synthesis and aromatic aldehydes (such as diols ) and compounds of uric acid , on which he received his doctorate in chemistry in 1877. In 1876 he was professor of chemistry at the Institut agronomique in Paris and in 1877 lecturer and from 1881 professor of chemistry at the École Polytechnique .

In 1894 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences .

He dealt with the synthesis of citric acid , synthesis of codeine from morphine (1881), nitrites and allantoin . Grimaux wrote a biography of Antoine de Lavoisier and was one of the editors of his works, which appeared from 1862. He also wrote a biography of Charles Frédéric Gerhardt .

Grimaux was active in the Dreyfuss affair , signed one of the petitions for Dreyfuss in 1898 and stood in the process of Émile Zola for this, which is why he lost his functions at the École Polytechnique, which was subordinate to the Ministry of War. In 1898 he became vice-president of the League for the Defense of Civil Rights. The commitment also affected his health.

He was an officer in the Legion of Honor . There is a monument in his honor in Rochefort (erected in 1907), a school in Rochefort is named after him and one street each in Rochefort and Poitiers.

literature

• Claude Viel, Marie-Christine Journaux: Edouard Grimaux: de la pharmacie de Marine à l'enseignement supérieur, puis à l'Académie des Sciences , Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie, Volume 84, 1996, No. 312, online

Fonts

• Equivalents, atomes, molécules , Paris 1866 (digitized version )
• Notice sur les travaux scientifiques , Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1881 (digitized version)
• Introduction à l'étude de la chimie, théories et notations chimiques , 1883.
• Lavoisier, 1743–1794: d'après sa correspondance, ses manuscrits, ses papiers de famille et d'autres documents inédits , Paris: F. Alcan 1888 (digitized version)
• Chimie organique élémentaire , 1889.
• Notice sur les travaux scientifiques , Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1891 (digitized version)
• Charles Gerhardt, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondance, 1816–1856 , 1900