Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas  French chemist Jean-Baptiste-André
DumasFrench chemist  July 14, 1800  Alès, France   April 10,
1884  Cannes, France  Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas,  (born July 14,
1800, Alais [now Alès], France—died April 10,
1884Cannes), French chemist who pioneered in organic chemistry,
particularly organic analysis.  Dumas’s father was the town
clerk, and Dumas attended the local school. Although briefly
apprenticed to an apothecary, in 1816 Dumas traveled to Geneva
where he studied pharmacy, chemistry, and botany. His name
appeared on journal articles in pharmacy and physiology before
he was out of his teens.  In 1823, with assistance from the
great German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, Dumas returned
to France and became assistant to the French chemist Louis-
Jacques Thénard at the École Polytechnique in Paris. Dumas soon
became professor of chemistry at the Athenaeum, only the first
of many academic appointments he would hold—at the Sorbonne, the
École Polytechnique, and the École de Médecine