The Mixed Blessings of Pragmatism. Jean-Baptiste Dumas and the (Al)chemical Quest for Metallic Transmutation

There were at least three prerequisites for the transmutability of metals to become once again a scientifically acceptable subject of research from the 1810s: new hypotheses concerning the mutual reducibility of certain elements, such as those of integer multiples and protyle put forward by the Brit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSubstantia (Firenze) Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 121 - 136
Main Author Anatrini, Leonardo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Firenze University Press 03.07.2023
Subjects
Ammonium
Cyprien-Théodore Tiffereau
Jean-Baptiste Dumas
Jöns Jacob Berzelius
Transmutation
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Summary:There were at least three prerequisites for the transmutability of metals to become once again a scientifically acceptable subject of research from the 1810s: new hypotheses concerning the mutual reducibility of certain elements, such as those of integer multiples and protyle put forward by the British chemist and physician William Prout; the experimental confirmation that chemical compounds with the same percentage composition could be substances with very different properties, i.e. the discovery of isomerism and allotropy; the comparison between metals and compound radicals of organic chemistry. This paper aims at illustrating how these premises were exploited by Jean-Baptiste Dumas, one of the leading French chemists of the 19th century, to reintroduce in the chemical discourse the alchemical topic of transmutation.
ISSN:2532-3997
2532-3997
DOI:10.36253/Substantia-2169