Raphaël Dubois

Raphaël Horace Dubois was a French pharmacologist known for his work on bioluminescence and anesthesia. He coined the terms proteon and bioproteon, from the Greek "proteon" for matter and "bios" for life. Bioproteon means "living matter". He concluded that there was no difference between matter and living matter."A consideration of radioactivity led Dubois, in 1904, to the view that the distinction between "matter of life" and "living matter" is superficial. He proposed the term bioproteon meaning the particular state of the "proteon" in living beings, and suggested the desirability of determining the radioactivity proper of the bioproteon. In a subsequent paper he says: "The unique principle of everything, of both force and matter, I have called 'proteon,' and when it pertains to a living being, 'bioproteon'." Proteon and bioproteon are only two different states of the same thing. When the bioproteon is dead it has only ceased to be radioactive and becomes simply proteon."