1700-1782

French agronomist, botanist, and chemist who first distinguished soda from potash (1736). Duhamel's explanation of the saffron plant blight in France brought him his first scientific recognition (1728). After conducting chemical experiments in the 1730s, his interests shifted to botany and agronomy. He published several works on wood's structural properties, a book on ship rigging (1747), and an exposition of Jethro Tull's agricultural writings (1750). Duhamel's pioneering contributions to agricultural practice proved influential in France.