BIOLOGIST

Antoine Béchamp

1816 - 1908

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Pierre Jacques Antoine Béchamp (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ ʒak ɑ̃twan beʃɑ̃]; 16 October 1816 – 15 April 1908) was a French scientist now best known for breakthroughs in synthetic organic chemistry and for a bitter rivalry with Louis Pasteur. Béchamp developed the Béchamp reduction, an inexpensive method to produce aniline dye, permitting William Henry Perkin to launch the synthetic-dye industry. Béchamp also synthesized the first organic arsenical drug, arsanilic acid, from which Paul Ehrlich later synthesized salvarsan, the first chemotherapeutic drug. Béchamp's rivalry with Pasteur was initially for priority in attributing fermentation to microorganisms, later for attributing the silkworm disease pebrine to microorganisms, and eventually over the validity of germ theory. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Antoine Béchamp is the 363rd most popular biologist (down from 244th in 2019), the 2,461st most popular biography from France (down from 2,075th in 2019) and the 42nd most popular French Biologist.

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Among BIOLOGISTS

Among biologists, Antoine Béchamp ranks 363 out of 1,097. Before him are Henrietta Lacks, Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach, Friedrich Loeffler, Eugenius Warming, Humberto Maturana, and Fritz Müller. After him are Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, Pierre Edmond Boissier, Jean René Constant Quoy, Olof Swartz, Joel Asaph Allen, and Charles Plumier.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1816, Antoine Béchamp ranks 18. Before him are Carl Ludwig, Franz Sacher, 10th Dalai Lama, Jean Cabanis, William Gull, and Gustav Freytag. After him are Antoine François Marmontel, Rudolf Wolf, Jan Arnošt Smoler, Paul Féval, père, Giovanni Morelli, and Henri Dupuy de Lôme. Among people deceased in 1908, Antoine Béchamp ranks 40. Before him are Henry Bird, Dersu Uzala, Andrew Graham, Eduard Zeller, Friedrich Traun, and John Taylor. After him are Ludovic Halévy, Ouida, Qasim Amin, Sidney Paget, Richard Gerstl, and Khudiram Bose.

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In France

Among people born in France, Antoine Béchamp ranks 2,461 out of 6,770. Before him are Edgar Faure (1908), Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605), Sébastien Japrisot (1931), Thomas, Count of Flanders (1199), Maurice Rouvier (1842), and Paul Frère (1917). After him are Renée Simonot (1911), Richeza of Lotharingia (995), Charles II, Count of Alençon (1297), Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia (1922), Margaret of Burgundy, Duchess of Bavaria (1374), and Christian Boltanski (1944).

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Among BIOLOGISTS In France

Among biologists born in France, Antoine Béchamp ranks 42. Before him are René Louiche Desfontaines (1750), Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805), Jean Victoir Audouin (1797), Guillaume-Antoine Olivier (1756), Jérôme Lejeune (1926), and Pierre Gaspard Chaumette (1763). After him are Jean René Constant Quoy (1790), Charles Plumier (1646), Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart (1801), Louis Claude Richard (1754), Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre (1752), and Auguste Chevalier (1873).

French born Biologists

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