114 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



begun, as usual, with the special notation of which Ber- 

 thelot was the sole defender (' equivalents based on two 

 volumes of vapour '), and that, without the slightest warn- 

 ing in the middle of a chapitre, to the great astonishment of 

 his audience, he effected the change, dealing with a subject 

 of which the first portion had been expounded in the 

 ' equivalent ' notation, and continuing in the newer nota- 

 tion of which he had so long been the opponent. 



No one is more conscious than the writer that he has 

 failed to do justice to this remarkable personality. His 

 only excuse is that he has done his best. He wishes that 

 it were possible to convey to the reader a sense of the 

 brilliancy, the vivacity, the power, the ability, the talent, 

 and the high character of the great chemist. In the life- 

 like plaquette by Chaplain, his features and his attitude 

 have been admirably reproduced. Truly he was one of 

 the most remarkable of the eminent men of whom France 

 may be proud. He and his wife lie in the vaults of the 

 Pantheon, in life united, in death not put asunder. 



