LAURENT, AUGUSTE

born Nov. 14, 1807, La Folie, Fr. died April 23, 1853, Paris French chemist who advanced knowledge of the structure of organic compounds. He held various industrial posts before becoming professor of chemistry at Bordeaux (1838) and was an assayer at the Paris mint from 1848. Laurent discovered several important organic compounds and, with Charles Gerhardt, developed a systematic classification of them. They attempted to rationalize the composition and reactions of organic compounds in terms of a unitary theory of their atomic structure, which was opposed by Justus von Liebig and Jns Berzelius, who adhered to the dualistic view that every chemical compound represents a combination of an electropositive and an electronegative component. Laurent advanced the accurate determination of atomic weights by helping to win acceptance of Avogadro's law. His Mthode de chimie (1854; Chemical Method) brought him posthumous respect.