Laboratories were given structure, biology keeps on developing

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Thanks to new knowledge and its dissemination via the first scientific journals, laboratories became independent research locations within factories. Trials, observations, series of measurements were conducted. Due to the complexity, novelty, purity of the materials, and to the quest for quality and stability across time, the recipes became formulas. Laboratory notebooks in which experiments and procedures were recorded started being used in the most important houses.

Georges Auguste Darzens (1867-1954). Industrie de la parfumerie, 1946.   BIU Santé Pharmacie : cote P 10069. Guerlain laboratory notebook. Outstanding document giving the composition and the instructions for preparation of a Huvé’s cream (end of the XIXth century).   © Patrimoine Guerlain.

The skin stopped being considered as an inert envelope. Thanks to the research conducted by Claude Bernard and Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard, the biological effects of animal extracts were progressively understood, and opotherapy [1] became fashionable. In 1877, physician Charles Bouchard described the deleterious effects of the sun’s ultraviolet rays on the skin. Sixty years later, his observations led to the development of the first anti-UV sunscreens.

Portrait of Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard (1817-1894). Le Correspondant médical, s.d.   BIU Santé Médecine : image CIPB 0447.

Portrait of Claude Bernard (1813-1878). Le Journal illustré, n° 13, 24 mars 1872   BIU Santé Médecine : image CIPB 0082.

Portrait of Charles-Joseph Bouchard (1837-1915). Le Correspondant médical, s.d.   BIU Santé Médecine : image CIPB 0363.