Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, F. R. S. (1737-1816) and his relations with British scientists

Most of the eminent French scientists of the eighteenth century lived in Paris and were members of the Académie Royale des Sciences. But academies also flourished in twenty or more provincial cities, and in Dijon there was a chemist who achieved during his lifetime an international reputation equal to that of any of his compatriots. Louis Bernard Guyton was born at Dijon on 4 January 1737 (1). Like his father he studied law, and from 1756 to 1762 he practised as an advocate. Dijon was the ancient capital of Burgundy and the seat of one of the French provincial parliaments, or royal courts of law, in which offices carrying social prestige and exemption from certain taxes could be bought and sold, and in 1762 Guyton’s father obtained for him the office of avocat-général du roi , one of the public prosecutors. Guyton then added to his name ‘de Morveau’, from a family property near the city, and he retained this name, sign ing himself simply ‘De Morveau’ until the French Revolution, when, like many Frenchmen, he dropped the ‘de’ and became ‘Guyton-Morveau’, then ‘Guyton’ and finally ‘Guyton-Morveau’ again.