François-Zacharie Roussin

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François-Zacharie Roussin

François-Zacharie Roussin (born September 6, 1827 in Moulins (Ille-et-Vilaine) , † April 8, 1894 in Paris ) was a French chemist and pharmacist .

biography

Roussin's parents were Françoise Roussin and Angélique Daligaut, established papermakers. After primary school in Fougères and high school in Rennes , he studied from 1846 to 1847 at the Ecole de médicine et de pharmacie de Rennes, where he graduated with honors (best of his year). During his student days he worked at Destouches as an assistant in preparation for experiments.

Contrary to the wishes of his parents to become a pharmacist in Fougères, Roussin wanted to exploit the great possibilities in his field. Therefore, like many young people in 1848, in the course of the February Revolution , he was drawn to the capital Paris. In 1849 Roussin began his studies there at the boarding school des hôpitaux de Paris , which he graduated with honors from the Ecole de Paris in 1852 , which resulted in the waiver of tuition fees. In 1851, while still a student, he succeeded in extracting mannitol from the leaves of the lilac for the first time . He was also able to improve the synthesis of nitroprusside in 1852 .

In 1853 he joined the French Army and was stationed in Algiers at the Hôpital du Dey . In 1857 Roussin was promoted to supervisor at the Val-de-Grâce military hospital . That year he was also appointed associate professor of chemistry and toxicology .

In 1859 he married Clémentine Chagnet and became a member of the Societé de pharmacie . He also took up his work as editor of the magazine Annales de hygiéne publique et de médicine légale . In the same year he was appointed a toxicological expert in court. Through this task a friendship developed with the forensic doctor Auguste Ambroise Tardieu with whom he also wrote three books.

From 1861 Roussin experimented with naphthalene , which was then worthless , discovered naphthazarine and was the first chemist to synthesize an azo dye (orange). Furthermore, the black and red Roussin ammonium salt named after him . In the same year his daughter Marie Amélie was born.

However, Roussin had not registered a patent for his process to produce azo colors, which the German chemist Heinrich Caro took advantage of.

In 1868 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor. 1871 During the Franco-Prussian War he stayed in Paris and was arrested by the Communards as a military man, but was released after a few days.

By extracting the liquorice root , he discovered glycyrrhizin in 1873, which he describes in his book De la nature de la matière sucrée de la racine de réglisse . He was also promoted to second class chief pharmacist. This was accompanied by his secondment as chief pharmacist of the grand hôpital de militaire in Lyon . On his return to Paris in 1875, he was promoted to first class pharmacist and appointed chief pharmacist at the Gros-Caillou Military Hospital . At the world exhibition in 1878 he received the silver medal for his life's work. In 1879 Roussin was tasked with reorganizing the medical service of the French army. Because of the transfer as chief pharmacist to the colonial troops in Algeria , Roussin said goodbye to the military. The severance payment was FF 250,000 (a worker at that time earned an average of FF 2,500 a year). In 1886 he received, retrospectively, prize money of 3,000 FF from the Société encouragement á l´Industrie for the utilization of naphthalene.

Roussin continued his research in the period that followed. For the detection of nicotine , Roussin developed a method in which needle-shaped crystals, the Roussin crystals , are created through heating . He also applied for the first patent for mechanically stable dyeing of refractory fibers.

Roussin died at the age of 67 in his laboratory from poisoning caused by the defective lighting, which was then powered by town gas .

Publications

  • Falsification of vins par l'alun, Anales de hygiéne publique et de médicine légale
  • De la nature de la matière sucrée de la racine de réglisse
  • Étude médico-légale et clinique sur l'empoisonnement , (1875), With A. Tardieu
  • Mémoire sur la coralline, et sur le danger que présente l'emploi de cette substance dans la teinture de certains vêtements (1869), with A. Tardieu
  • Relation médico-légale de l'affaire Couty de la Pommerais , (1864), with A. Tardieu

literature

personal data
SURNAME Roussin, François-Zacharie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French chemist and pharmacist
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Moulins (Ille-et-Vilaine)
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1894
Place of death Paris