BALARD, ANTOINE JEROME French chemist, was born at Montpelier. In 1826 he discovered in sea water a substance which he recognized as a previously unknown element and named bromine. He then succeeded L. J. Thenard in the chair of chemistry at the faculty of sciences in Paris, and in 1851 was appointed professor of chemistry at the College de France, where he had M. P. E. Berthelot first as pupil, then as assistant, and finally as colleague. The discovery of bromine and the preparation of many of its compounds was perhaps his most conspicuous piece of work. In his researches on the bleach ing compounds of chlorine he was the first to advance the view that bleaching-powder is a double compound of calcium chloride and hypochlorite ; and he studied the problem of economically obtaining soda and potash from sea-water, though here his efforts were nullified by the discovery of the much richer sources of supply afforded by the Stassfurt deposits. In organic chemistry he published papers on the decomposition of ammonium oxalate, with formation of oxamic acid, on amyl alcohol, on the cyanides, and on the difference in constitution between nitric and sulphuric ether.