[Pierre Bayen (Chalons-sur-Marne 1725-Paris 1798), organizer of military pharmacy, chemist].

Pierre Bayen was born in Chalons in 1725. Pupil in pharmacy in Reims and in Paris, he begun his military career during the "Expedition de Minorque". After the "Guerre de Sept-Ans", named major apothecary, he had to organize the military pharmacy. At the end of his life, he was named general inspector of the medical corps. Member of the College de pharmacie, he devoted a great deal of his time to chemical research and he was named as a member of the Institut national de France when it was created. Bayen is one of the founders of analytical chemistry and of mineralogy. His results on the toxicology of pewter plates were famous. He is one of the precursors of the discovery of oxygen and one of the creators of modern chemistry. Bayen died in Paris in 1798.