Louis Henri Frédéric Melsens (11 July 1814 – 20 April 1886) was a Belgium physicist and chemist. In 1846, he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Veterinary School of Cureghem in Anderlecht, Brussels. Melsens applied the principle of the Faraday cage to lightning conductors and invented tincture of iodine for disinfection. In medical circles he became internationally famous for his research on oral administration of potassium iodide as a cure for mercury or lead poisoning.[ "Sur l'emploi de l'iodure de potassium pour combattre les affections saturnines et mercurielles", in Annales de chimie et de physique, t. 26, 3e série, 1849.][ "On the Employment of Iodide of Potassium as a Remedy for the Affections Caused by Lead and Mercury", in Br Foreign Med Chir Rev. 1853 Jan; 11(21): 201–224.]
Life and career
Melsens was born in Leuven on 11 July 1814, first of at least 5 children to Henri Melsens and Marie Henriette Françoise Hamoir. He was first home-schooled by his mother and went on to high school in Leuven. He studied ancient languages, as well as English, German and Italian, and began his career in the offices of a commercial firm in Antwerp, with the Josson brothers.
[DE HEEN, Pierre, "Notice sur Louis-Henri-Frédéric Melsens", in Annuaire de l'Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1893, p. 484-493.] Not really having a commercial streak, he decided to devote the rest his life to the study of science. On the advice of his mother and his fellow student Jean Servais Stas, he went to Paris to study chemistry and physics in Jean-Baptiste Dumas's private laboratory. He shared an apartment with Stas.
He completed his training in Bonn, Germany, where he attended
Liebig's laboratory. He became a doctor of science at the University of
Giessen.
[HENRIOT, Émile, "Melsens (Louis-Henri-Frédéric)" , in Biographie Nationale, t. 30, Brussels: Établissements Émile Bruylant, 1958, col. 570.]
Back in Belgium, he obtained the chair of physics and chemistry at the Royal Veterinary School of Cureghem and permanent examiner at the Belgian Royal Military Academy. He was appointed correspondent of the Royal Academy of Belgium, on 16 December 1846 and became a member of the institution on 15 December 1850. He was made knight in the Order of Leopold in 1856 or 1857, before his marriage to Wilhelmine Jeanne Marie Koli on 30 July 1857. He was director of the Classe des sciences in 1859.
Melsens suffered from poor health throughout his life, and died at the age of 71 on 20 April 1886 in Brussels. He is buried in Evere.
Scientific achievements
Melsens mainly did research in organic chemistry, although he also pioneered uses of inorganic iodine in medicine. As early as 1843, he collaborated with Natalis Guillot on the curative properties of
potassium iodide administered to people suffering from
lead poisoning or mercury poisoning,
for which in 1877 he was awarded the
Guinard Prize by the Royal Academy of Belgium, given to the scientist who has written the best work or created the best invention to improve the material or intellectual position of the working class. He also received the
Montyon Prize by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1865.
He also carried out research on and invented an improved version of Benjamin Franklin's original design.
Streets and scientific award named in his honor
The
Louis Melsens Prize is awarded to a Belgian or naturalised Belgian author of the most remarkable work on applied chemistry or physics.
[ Louis Melsens Prize (created in 1900)] The Melsensstraat or Rue Melsens in Brussels and the Louis Melsensstraat in Leuven are streets named after him.
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