AUGUSTE-NICOLAS-EUGÈNE MILLON Millon reagent, chlorine derivatives, and blood.

Resumen

Auguste-Nicolas-Eugène-Millon (1812-1867) was a pharmacist of the French Army who studied the compounds of chlorine with oxygen and sulfur; his results indicated that the bleaching compounds should not be considered as salts but rather the compounds corresponding to the peroxides where one equivalent of chlorine had replaced the corresponding amount of oxygen. He also assumed that bromine, iodine, sulfur, and metalloids formed analogous compounds. He synthesized and determined the properties of chlorous, hypochloric, chloric, chloroperchloric, perchloric, and hypochlorosulfuric acids, as well as numerous new similar compounds of iodine. He developed a method for preparing highly pure nitric acid and used it to prepare, for the first time, ethyl nitrate. Millon studied the presence of different metals and salts in human blood and demonstrated the presence of silica, manganese, lead, and copper. His results indicated that these were present in enough quantity to determine them by standard analytical procedures. To him we owe the Millon reagent, an extremely sensitive coloring agent for determining proteins and related substances. He prepared it by dissolving mercury in water containing nitric acid in a concentration equal to 4.5 times the weight of the element and showed that the active component was not mercurous or mercuric nitrate.