Léon-Gervais-Marie Maquenne (2 December 1853 – 10 January 1925) was a French

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

and

plant physiologist Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bio ...

born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. From 1871 he worked in the laboratory of agricultural chemistry at the ''Ecole d'agriculture'' in Grignon. Here, he was a student of Pierre Paul Dehérain (1830-1902). In 1883 he became ''préparateur'' at the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

, where from 1885 to 1898 he served as an assistant to the chair of ''Physiologie végétale''. In 1898 he succeeded

Georges Ville Georges Ville (23 March 1824 – 22 February 1897) was a French agronomist and plant physiologist born in Pont-Saint-Esprit. In 1843 he started his career as an interne in pharmacy. From 1857 to 1897 he held the chair of ''Physique végétale'' ...

(1824-1897) as chair of ''Physique végétale'', a position he held on to until 1925. In 1904 he became a member of the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

. Among Maquenne's contributions was research involving the chemical make-up of sugar alcohols. He was able to resolve the chemical constitution of

inositol Inositol, or more precisely ''myo''-inositol, is a carbocyclic sugar that is abundant in the brain and other mammalian tissues; it mediates cell signal transduction in response to a variety of hormones, neurotransmitters, and growth factors and ...

and demonstrated it to be a hexahydroxycyclohexane. He is credited with invention of the so-called "Maquenne block", an apparatus used for determining the

melting point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends ...

of chemical compounds.
Archive.org, "A handbook of sugar analysis"

Written works

* ''Les Sucres et principaux dérivés'' (1900, 1032 pages) – The sugars and their major derivatives. * ''Précis de Physiologie végétale'' (1921) – Handbook of Plant Physiology.

References

Biographies des principaux personnages du Muséum
(Biography in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maquenne, Leon 19th-century French chemists Scientists from Paris 1925 deaths 1853 births Plant physiologists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century French chemists