Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt (24 July 1731 – 17 October 1799) was a French

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

who synthesised the first organometalic compound. He obtained a red liquid by the reaction of potassium acetate with arsenic trioxide. This liquid is known as Cadet's fuming liquid and contains the two compounds cacodyl and cacodyl oxide. Cadet studied at the Collège des Quatre-Nations and became a pharmacist at the Hotel Royal des Invalides in Paris. He was the brother of the pharmacist Antoine-Alexis Cadet de Vaux. Marie Thérèse Françoise Boisselet became his wife in 1771, at that time her son, fathered by

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

, was two years old. The boy was adopted by Cadet as Charles-Louis Cadet. Cadet was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1787. In 1825, botanist Antoine Laurent Apollinaire Fée circumscribed '' Gassicurtia'' which is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Caliciaceae and named in Cadet de Gassicourt's honor.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadet de Gassicourt, Louis Claude 1731 births 1799 deaths University of Paris alumni Scientists from Paris Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society French chemists