Richard Felix Marchand

Background

Richard Felix Marchand was born on August 25, 1813, in Berlin, Germany to the family of a lawyer.

Education

Richard Felix Marchand studied medicine at the University of Halle (now Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg) graduating in 1837.

Career

Marchand had already published a substantial amount of original research on organic chemistry while a medical student at the University of Halle, before he graduated in 1837. This work brought him the friendship of Otto Erdmann, professor of technical chemistry at the neighboring University of Leipzig. In 1838 he became a lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Prussian Artillery and Engineering School in Berlin, but not until 1840 was he recognized as privatdocent by the University of Berlin. In 1843 he became an extraordinary professor of chemistry at the University of Halle (where he had been licensed to teach since 1838), and in 1846 he succeeded to the permanent chair. Together with Otto Linné Erdmann, he was the editor of the Journal für praktischen Chemie ("Journal of Practical Chemistry") from 1839.

Achievements

• Nicknamed “Dr. Méchant” by Berlin society, during his short life (ended by cholera) Richard Felix Marchand accomplished an impressive amount of experimental research and popular lecturing which remain the memory of his impact on science.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ueber Die Alchemie: Ein Vortrag Im Wissenschaftlichen Vereine Zu Berlin Am 20. Februar 1847 Gehalten 1847
  • Lehrbuch der Physiologischen Chemie 1844

• publication

  • Journal Fur Praktische Chemie (1840) 1840

Views

Marchand’s publications, which are primarily descriptive and analytical, encompass biochemistry, in which he was greatly inspired by Liebig’s Die Thier-Chemie, organic chemistry, and determinations of atomic weights. In 1837 Marchand published an important analytical paper on the controversial subject of the constitution of ethyl sulfuric acid; in this he supported the view of Serullas that it was a bisulfate of ordinary ether. Although this challenged the interpretation held by Liebig at this time, Liebig soon saw that Marchand’s work supported the ethyl-radical concept which had been introduced in 1834. Following Dumas, in 1838, Marchand and Erdmann developed a technique for the estimation of nitrogen in organic compounds by using copper oxide in an inert atmosphere of carbon dioxide. In 1842 they extended Hess’s technique for organic analyses, using as oxidizing agents copper oxide and streams of air and oxygen controlled from gasometers. From 1841, following the dramatic reduction of the atomic weight of carbon from 76.43 to 75.08 (O = 100), Marchand and Erdmann devoted their attentions to the accurate redetermination of atomic weights. Their drastic modifications of Berzelian values and their enthusiastic support for Prout’s hypothesis that atomic weights were whole numbers on the hydrogen scale, infuriated Berzelius. He dismissed them unkindly - and erroneously - as careless “apes” and bunglers who always echoed Dumas.

Membership

• 

  Now Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig.

  Royal Saxon Society for the Sciences , Germany

Personality

Richard Felix Marchand had a charismatic personality.

Quotes from others about the person

• “[Marchand's] negroid Mephistopheles features, very free and easy in a manner almost to a level of impertinence, full of sudden ideas, wisecracks, and satirical remarks; all, however, combined with a sure amiability and genius, so that one cannot help liking him." - Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist.

Connections

In 1844 Richard Felix Marchand married Marianne Baerensprung. One of their three children, Jacob Felix, became a distinguished physiologist.

Wife:

Marianne Baerensprung

Son:

Felix Jacob Marchand

Friend:

Otto Erdmann

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Volumes 9 & 10
  1980