February 2nd |
1566 | Michal Sedziwój (Michael Sendivogius), was born. He was an alchemist; developed methods for isolating and purifying various acids, metals and other chemical compounds; discovered that air is not a single substance and contains a life-giving substance; identified this 'food of life' with the gas given off by heating nitre (saltpetre). |
1802 | Jean Baptiste Joseph Dieudonne Boussingault, who demonstrated that plants absorb nitrogen from soil in form of nitrates and not from air as previously believed; isolated and named sorbitol, was born. |