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CANNIZZARO, STANISLAO (1826-1910)
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See also:CANNIZZARO, STANISLAO (1826-1910) , See also:Italian chemist, was See also:born at See also:Palermo on the 13th of See also:July 1826. In 1841 he entered the university of his native See also:place with the intention of making See also:medicine his profession, but he soon turned to the study of See also:chemistry, and in 1845 and 1846 acted as assistant to Rafaelle Piria (1815-1865), known for his See also:work on See also:salicin, who was then See also:professor of chemistry at See also:Pisa and subsequently occupied the same position at See also:Turin. During the Sicilian revolution he served as an See also:artillery officer at See also:Messina and was also chosen See also:deputy for Francavilla in the Sicilian See also:parliament; and after the fall of Messina in See also:September 1848 he was stationed at See also:Taormina. On the collapse of the insurgents he escaped to See also:Marseilles, in May 1849, and after visiting various See also:French towns reached See also:Paris in See also:October. There he gained an introduction to M. E. See also:Chevreul's laboratory, and in See also:conjunction with F. S. Cloez (1817-1883) made his first contribution to chemical See also:research in 1851, when they prepared See also:cyanamide by the See also:action of See also:ammonia on See also:cyanogen chloride in ethereal See also:solution. In the same See also:year he was appointed professor of See also:physical chemistry at the See also:National See also:College of See also:Alexandria, where he discovered that aromatic See also:aldehydes are decomposed by alcoholic potash into a mixture of the corresponding See also:acid and See also:alcohol, e.g. See also:benzaldehyde into benzoic acid and benzyl alcohol (" Cannizzaro's reaction "). In the autumn of 1855 he became professor of chemistry at See also:Geneva university, and six years later, after declining professorshipsat Pisa and See also:Naples, accepted the See also:chair of inorganic and organic chemistry at Palermo. There he spent ten years, studying the aromatic compounds and continuing to work on the See also:amines, until in 1871 he was appointed to the chair of chemistry at See also:Rome university. Apart from his work on organic chemistry, which includes also an investigation of See also:santonin, he rendered See also:great service to the See also:philosophy of chemistry when in his memoir Sunto di un torso di Filosofia chemica (1858) he insisted on the distinction, till then imperfectly realized, between molecular and atomic weights, and showed how the atomic weights of elements contained in volatile compounds can be deduced from the molecular weights of those compounds, and how the atomic weights of elements of whose compounds the vapour densities are unknown can be ascertained from a knowledge of their specific heats. For this achievement, of fundamental importance for the atomic theory in chemistry, he was awarded the See also:Copley See also:medal by the Royal Society in 1891. Cannizzaro's scientific See also:eminence in 1871 secured him See also:admission to the Italian See also:senate, of which he was See also:vice-See also:president, and as a member of the See also:Council of Public Instruction and in other ways he rendered important services to the cause of scientific See also:education in See also:Italy. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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