Claude-Melchior Cornette (1 March 1744 – 11 May 1794) was a French chemist, physician and apothecary who worked under royal patronage just before the French Revolution drove him into exile. He conducted experimental studies on chemical reactions.

Life

Cornette was born in Besançon to Pierre-Claude Cornette and Claude-Antoine Sauvin. He was educated at a local Jesuit college before going to apprentice under apothecary Janson. In 1763 he went to Paris to study chemistry under Pierre Macquer and Antoine Baumé. He also studied pharmacy with Guillaume-François Rouelle. Around 1772 he began to work in the marly-le-Roi laboratory of the royal physician Joseph-Marie-François de Lassone. He also studied and became a physician in 1778 and also became a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1788, on the death of Lassone, he became royal physician. Sophie (1734–82), the daughter of Louis XV, was interested in scientific objects and had Cornette organize a scientific cabinet for her.[1] The French Revolution forced him into exile and he died in 1794 in Rome.[2]

Contributions to chemistry

Cornette conducted studies on reactions between acids, salts and oils. He examined reversible reactions, following the work of Baumé, and noted that potassium sulphate could be broken by hydrochloric acid. He also noted that the concentrations of materials could alter reaction directions and rates in 1788.[3] He published Mémoire sur la formation du salpêtre (1799).[4]

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Carlyle, Margaret (2016). "Collecting the World in Her Boudoir: Women and Scientific Amateurism in Eighteenth-Century Paris". Early Modern Women. 11 (1): 149–161. doi:10.1353/emw.2016.0049. S2CID 164946864.
  2. ↑ Michaud, Louis Gabriel (1855). Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne (in French). Vol. 9. Paris: Madame C. Desplaces. p. 241.
  3. ↑ Grapí, Pere; Izquierdo, Mercè (1997). "Berthollet's Conception of Chemical Change in Context". Ambix. 44 (3): 113–130. doi:10.1179/amb.1997.44.3.113. ISSN 0002-6980.
  4. ↑ Partington, J.R. (2016). History of Chemistry. Macmillan. p. 100.
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