Guyton de Morveau, Louis Bernard, Baron 1737-1816
French lawyer and chemist

Born in Dijon, Burgundy, he practised law during much of his life, notably as a provincial prosecutor, but devoted his leisure to studying and teaching chemistry. In 1791 he was elected a member of the legislative assembly. From 1795 to 1805 he was director of the �cole Polytechnique and was Master of the Mint from 1800 to 1814. He was made a baron of the French Empire in 1810. He adopted the views of Antoine Lavoisier on combustion, and in the 1780s he was involved with Lavoisier, Claude Louis Berthollet and Antoine Fran�ois Fourcroy in revising chemical nomenclature and publishing M�thode d'une nomenclature chimique (1787, 'Method of Chemical Nomenclature'). He wrote many scientific articles and several books, and his interests spanned mineralogy, applied chemistry, metallurgy and balloon flight.