THE RISE OF SYNTHETIC 

 CHEMISTRY AND ITS FOUNDER 



FROM endeavors to pick to pieces the atoms, we 

 may turn to the more fruitful efforts to pile them 

 up, or group them together into familiar things- 

 dyes, drugs, oils, foods in a word, the rise of 

 synthetic chemistry. I shall build the story, as 

 it belongs, around the distinguished career of its 

 founder. 



It was in the wide halls of the Sorbonne, to which 

 the genius of Puvis de Chavannes has lent so large 

 a measure of distinction and charm. 



First came the President of the Republic, after 

 him the vice-president and the president of the 

 Chamber of Deputies, the prime-minister and his 

 cabinet, the general-in-chief of the army, the chief 

 functionaries of state. 



Then there were the representatives of the acad- 

 emies and learned societies, bringing addresses, a 

 hundred and more, from every part of the earth, 

 the tribute of the scientific world. 



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