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chemist. He was the first to state the principle of constant composition
of compounds - that compounds consist of the same proportions of elements
wherever found. Proust was born in Angers and trained as an apothecary. In the 1780s he went to Spain and spent the next 20 years in Madrid. He taught at various academies and carried out his research in a laboratory provided by his patron, King Charles IV of Spain. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and French soldiers wrecked Proust's laboratory. He returned to France a poor man. French chemist Claude Berthollet. had stated that the composition of compounds could vary, depending on the proportions of reactants used to produce them. In 1799 Proust prepared and analysed copper carbonate produced in various ways and compared the results with those obtained by analysing mineral deposits of the same substance; he found that they all had the same composition. Similar results with other compounds led Proust to propose the law of constant composition. After a long controversy Berthollet conceded that Proust was right. |