William Prout

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William Prout by Henry Wyndham Phillips
William Prout by Henry Wyndham Phillips[1]

William Prout FRS (January 15, 1785 – April 9, 1850) was an English chemist, physician, and natural theologian. He is remembered today mainly for what is called Prout's hypothesis.

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[edit] Life and work

Prout was born in Horton, Gloucestershire in 1785. His professional life was spent as a practising physician in London, but he also occupied himself with chemical research. He was an active worker in biological chemistry and carried out many analyses of the secretions of living organisms, which he believed were produced by the breakdown of bodily tissues. In 1823, he discovered that stomach juices contain hydrochloric acid, which can be separated from gastric juice by distillation. In 1827, he proposed the classification of substances in food into carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Different species of urinary calculi noted by William Prout
Different species of urinary calculi noted by William Prout[2]

Prout is better remembered, however, for his researches into physical chemistry. In 1815, based on the tables of atomic weights available at the time, he hypothesized that the atomic weight of every element is an integer multiple of that of hydrogen, suggesting that the hydrogen atom is the only truly fundamental particle, and that the atoms of the other elements are made of groupings of various numbers of hydrogen atoms. While Prout's hypothesis was not borne out by later more-accurate measurements of atomic weights, it was a sufficiently fundamental insight into the structure of the atom that in 1920, Ernest Rutherford chose the name of the newly-discovered proton to, among other reasons, give credit to Prout.

Prout contributed to the improvement of the barometer, and the Royal Society of London adopted his design as a national standard.

Prout wrote the eighth Bridgewater Treatise, Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion, considered with reference to Natural Theology. It was in this work that he coined the term "convection" to describe a type of energy transfer.[3][4]

In 1814, Prout married Agnes Adam of Edinburgh, Scotland, and together they had six children.[5] Prout died in London in 1850.

The Prout is the unit of nuclear binding energy, and is 1/12 the binding energy of the deuteron, or 185.5 keV. It is is named after William Prout.

[edit] Selected writings

[edit] Honours and activities

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ See description in Rosenfeld, Louis (2003). "William Prout: Early 19th Century Physician-Chemist". Clinical Chemistry 49: 699 – 705. doi:10.1373/49.4.699. 
  2. ^ Prout, William (1825). An Inquiry Into the Nature and Treatment of Diabetes, Calculus, and Other Affections of the Urinary Organs, 2, London: Baldwin, Craddock, and Joy. 
  3. ^ Burr, A. C. (1934). "Notes on the History of the Experimental Determination of the Thermal Conductivity of Gases". Isis 21: 169 – 186. doi:10.1086/346837. 
  4. ^ Brock, W. H. (1970). "William Prout and Barometry". Notes and Record of the Royal Society of London 24: 281 – 294. 
  5. ^ Brock, W. H. (1963). "Prout's Chemical Bridgewater Treatise". Journal of Chemical Education 40: 652 – 655. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Benfey, O. Theodore (1952). "Prout's Hypothesis". Journal of Chemical Education 29: 78 – 81. 
  • Brock, W. H. (1963). "Prout's Chemical Bridgewater Treatise". Journal of Chemical Education 40: 652 – 655. 
  • Brock, W. H. (1985). From Protyle to Proton. Bristol, England: Adam Hilger Ltd.. ISBN 0852748019. 
  • Gladstone, Samuel (1947). "William Prout (1785-1850)". Journal of Chemical Education 24: 478 – 481. 
Awards
Preceded by
James South		 Copley Medal
1827
jointly with Henry Foster		 Succeeded by
George Biddell Airy