Born June 4, 1756; died 1832.
A celebrated chemist. His uncle, a rich physician at Montpellier, gave
him his first education. He studied chemistry at the University of
Montpellier, received the title of Doctor in 1777, and went to Paris.
In 1781 he returned to his native town a celebrated man.
The State of Languedoc founded in his honour a Professorship of
Chemistry at the School of Medicine. Chaptal had adopted the theories
of Lavoisier. The young professor considered chemistry, then in its
infancy, likely to become the most useful and practical of sciences.
By his uncle’s death he inherited a large fortune, and he devoted the
whole of it to constructing various laboratories, where experiments
could be carried out, and large establishments in which scientific
productions might be manufactured.
By his inventive studies, and assisted by his large fortune,
manufactories of alum, soda, and saltpetre were successfully
established, and the Government recompensed this work by giving him a
patent of nobility and the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Michael.
Chaptal adopted all the ideas of the Revolution, although he
disapproved its excesses. He was in consequence arrested; but his
scientific knowledge was too important to the Government, and he was
liberated and appointed Director of the Saltpetre Manufactory at
Grenoble. After this he directed also the re-organisation of the School
of Medicine. During the Consulate, Chaptal succeeded Lucien Bonaparte
as Minister of the Interior, and in that capacity rendered great
service to the State; he was appointed Treasurer of the _Senat_,
under the title of Count Chanteloup. When Napoleon returned from Elba,
Chaptal accepted the portfolio of Minister of Commerce. After the
Restoration, Louis XVIII. erased his name from the list of Peers of
France, but a few years later his peerage was restored. He was a member
of the Academy of Sciences, and wrote several important scientific
works in his old age.
Before his death, at the age of seventy-five, he had many pecuniary
misfortunes, and died in comparative poverty.