n 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



synthetic method into organic chemistry, and devised a system of 

 processes hy means of which we are able to create organic compounds 

 by the direct combination of their constituent radicals. 



Pierre Eugene Marcellin Berthelot was born in Paris, Octo- 

 ber 25, 1827. He was the son of a physician of some distinction, and 

 while a student in one of the lyceums of Paris showed marked tastes 

 for philosophical studies and chemical research, so that, when the time 

 for the contest came, he easily won the honors in philosophy. Then, 

 following his favorite pursuits, he occupied himself especially with 

 studies of the acids and fatty bodies, and of fermentations. In 1851 

 he became attached to the College de France as preparator in the 

 course of chemistry, in which position he was assistant to Balard. In 

 1854 he propounded his theory of polyatomic alcohols, and was in 

 the same year made a Doctor in Science. In 1859 he was appointed a 

 Professor in the Superior School of Pharmacy. In 1861 he received 

 the Joecker prize from the Academy of Sciences for his experiments 

 in the artificial production of chemical substances by synthesis. In 

 1864 he was made a Professor of Organic Chemistry in the College de 

 France in a chair which had been created especially for him, in which 

 he was instructed to advance his own ideas, and to treat in his lectures 

 especially of his own discoveries. 



M. Berthelot entered upon the researches in synthesis, which give 

 him his strongest title to fame, in 1854. Berzelius had said that, al- 

 though we may produce with inorganic bodies a few substances hav- 

 ing a composition analogous to that of some organic ones, the imita- 

 tion is too restricted to justify us in hoping that we shall be able to 

 produce organic bodies in the same sense that we have frequently 

 succeeded in confirming the analysis of inorganic bodies by perform- 

 ing the synthesis of them. Yet, when this was said, Wohler had 

 already performed the synthesis of urea ; and a few other syntheses 

 had been made, but they were so isolated, so insignificant, and so 

 barren of fruit, that all attempts to constitute organic bodies by bring- 

 ing together the elements of which they are composed were, as a rule, 

 regarded as chimerical. The law and the manner of the formation of 

 the organic matters which enter into the composition of the living 

 being were unknown ; the question whether those substances were 

 chemical in their character, or depended for their existence and main- 

 tenance upon a peculiar vital force, had been started, but the discus- 

 sion of it had not been seriously entered upon. M. Berthelot began 

 to give his attention to the solution of this problem very early in his 

 scientific career. 



One of the first syntheses he performed was that of formic acid, 

 and this was used as the basis of his further researches. Regarding 

 this substance as formed by the union of water and carbonic oxide, he 

 brought about a compound of that character through the intervention 

 >f potash, and secured the result he sought. Other syntheses followed 



