Bond Theory

Valance Theory

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I am C. F. Gerhardt. Investigations into substitution led Laurent, Dumas, and me, among others to work on a unitary theory of types. The years after 1840 were confusing, though, with many chemists uncertain about where they stood. Some liked the unitary view. Some favored radicals. Wöhler is said to have "regarded organic chemistry as a primeval forest so densely matted that one hesitated to enter" (19). The 1840's were years of chaos in chemistry.

Charles Frédérick Gerhardt

Although a brilliant systematizer of chemistry, Gerhardt was a radical reformer by nature with an abrasive personality. Because of Dumas's antagonism, Gerhardt was unable to obtain a college position in Paris, then the center of interest in chemistry. Along with Laurent, he worked on the theory of types and attempted to reform the system of atomic and molecular weights before his early death at age 40.

The theory of types was a scheme which allowed chemists to rationally classify orgainic chemicals according to their properties. For example, the amines were organic bases which seemed to be related to ammonia.

Charles Frédéric Gerhardt
(1816-1856)