Schutzenberger, Paul
SCHUTZENBERGER, PAUL (1829-1897), French chemist, was born on the 23rd of December 1829 at Strassburg, where his father Georges Frederic Schutzenberger (1779-1859) was professor of law, and his uncle Charles Schutzenberger (1809- 1881) professor of chemical medicine. He was intended for a medical career and graduated M.D. at Strassburg in 1855, but his interests lay in physical and chemical science. In 1853 he went to Paris as preparateur to J. F. Persoz (1805-1868), professor of chemistry at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. A year later he was entrusted with a course of chemical instruction at Miilhausen, and he remained in that town till 1865 as professor at the Ecole Superieure des Sciences. He then returned to Paris as assistant to A. V. Balard at the College de France, in 1876 he succeeded that chemist in the chair of chemistry, and in 1882 he became directing professor at the municipal ficole de Physique et de Chimie. The two latter chairs he held together until his death, which happened on the 26th of June 1897 at Mezy, Seine et Oise. During the period he spent at Miilhausen, Schutzenberger paid special attention to industrial chemistry, particularly in connexion with colouring matters, but he also worked at general and biological chemistry which subsequently occupied the greater part of his time. He is known for a long series of researches on the constitution of alkaloids and of the albuminoid bodies, and for the preparation of several new series of platinum compounds and of hyposulphurous acid, H 2 S2O,|. Towards the end of his life he adopted the view that the elements have been formed by some process of condensation from one primordial substance of extremely small atomic weight, and he expressed the conviction that atomic weights within narrow limits are variable and modified according to the physical conditions in which a compound is formed.
His publications include Chimie appliquee a la physiologic et a la pathologie animale (1863); Traite des matieres color antes (1867); Les Fermentations (1875), which was translated into German, Italian and English; and an excellent Traite de chimie generate in seven volumes (1880-1894).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
