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Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) was a French organic chemist, best remembered for his advocacy for the atomic theory and for ideas about the structures of chemical compounds. The chemistry of the 1850s took the idea of chemical atoms seriously, adopted atomic weights for the elements that strongly resemble the modern ones, and proposed a unitary schematic plan. In 1855, he published work on what is now known as the Wurtz reaction; a method of synthesizing saturated hydrocarbons by the action of metallic sodium on alkyl halides (usually bromides or iodides). He also discovered ethylamine, ethylene glycol, and the aldol reaction (a means of forming carbon-carbon bonds in organic chemistry). He was an honorary member of almost every scientific society in Europe. Wurtz's name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower. Wurtz died in 1884, probably of complications due to diabetes, at the age of 66.
