MARCELIN BERTHELOT—MATIGNON. 681 
memoir from which I have to draw any references and find the facts 
swamped in the theories of the period, to-day of such mediocre value. 
I am irritated at the author who makes me lose time in this way, and 
I understand fully the justice of Berthelot’s action. 
It is, moreover, a characteristic of youth, ignorant, inexperienced, 
and presumptuous, to hold decided opinions on everything and not 
to acquiesce on many points in the opinions of experienved persons 
and authorities. Age cures this fault quickly, but the memory of 
it comes back all the stronger when we find it again in succeeding 
generations. 
Berthelot leaves a number of French and foreign pupils, many of 
whom are among those who most honor the chemical profession. To 
speak only of the oldest ones, I may mention the following: Jung- 
fleisch, his collaborator in his “ Traité de chimie organique” and 
in his researches on the coefficient of distribution, of which Nernst 
more recently published a valuable generalization; Barbier, who 
gave proof of great experimental ability in assisting the professor 
in delicate researches on the reductive properties of hydriodic acid; 
Sabatier, the learned teacher, well known for his works, already 
classic, on catalyzers of hydrogen gas; André, Berthelot’s devoted 
collaborator in his researches on organic chemistry; Joannis, whose 
works on soda ammonium constitute good experimental models; 
de Forcrand, the distinguished director of the chemical institute of 
Montpellier, whose thermic data form a table of figures of undis- 
puted accuracy; Guntz, who had the honor of separating barium 
and strontium in a pure state and of discovering subsalts of silver; 
Recoura, whose thesis was one of the most remarkable ever pre- 
sented before the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, etc. In other coun- 
tries a number of Berthelot’s pupils teach in universities: Lou- 
guinine, Croustschoff, Ossipoff, Timoféieff, Werner, etc., in Russia; 
A. Werner in Switzerland; Fogh in Denmark; Hartog in England; 
Bredig in Germany; Paul Henry in Belgium, ete. 
Berthelot’s activity never waned a single instant. Last year he 
published a very extensive volume on the analysis of gases. He 
wrote out before his death a fifth volume on organic chemistry. At 
the same time he kept up his laboratory researches, which, by the 
way, were uninterrupted for fifty-five years. Berthelot could, like 
Hoffmann or Beyer, have realized a considerable fortune, but he 
never took out a patent nor derived any material profit from his dis- 
coveries. Offers made by groups of financiers to turn into money 
the results of his researches were in every case declined. 
Very sparing of his time, it was not always easy to hold a desired 
conversation with him. In order not to rob him of his leisure mo- 
ments, it was best to meet him coming out of his laboratory, toward 
noon, and accompany him from the Collége de France to the Insti- 
