OBITUARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 67, 20 March 1907, Page 7

OBITUARY.

BERTHELOT THE CHEMIST. [FRZS3 A3SOCIATION.? PARIS, 19th March. Maroslin Berthelot, the famous French savant, died ot heart failure, a few moments after, his wife had succumbed. P. E. Maxcelin Berthelot, who completed, his 79th year on 25th October last, was one of the greatest chemists of modern times, and is chiefly distinguished by- his researches into and discoveries- in analytical and synthetic chemistry. In the earlier chemistry, an exaggerated importance was attached tb tfo? vital force of organisms as a supposed exclusive factor in the production of a wide range of chemical compounds. As vital force defies all methods of physical analysis, it has been th>3 object of modern chemistry to minimise its theoretical influence by artificially imitating its operation©, and ultimately to ignore it altogether. Thus has arisen the new synthetic chemistry, in which Berthelofc was a distinguished pioneer. Ho set himself to demolish the old fallacies that had gatheTed around the doctrine of vital force, and by building up mechanically substances — chiefly fatty bodies and alcohols — once 6uppoeodi to be exclusively life-producte, he was 0n.3 of those w|io established the underlying unity of tlie laws controlling matter, animate and inanimate, and placed the whole science of organic chemistry on a new footing. He also made important discoveries in thermo-chem-istry. He was not only ci great chemist and a philosopher, but a many-sided man in other Tespects, taking an active interest in public affairs. In 1870 he was elected President of the Scientific Committee of Defence, and during the siege of Paris was engaged in the manufacture of guns and ammunition, including some of the high explosives then yaw to science. Since 1878 he*nas been President of the Committee on Explosives, to which body is due the inv-ention of smokeless powder. In 1881 he went to take hia seat at the Luxembourg, having been elected perpetual s-anator by the Upper Assembly, and in 1886 he was for a short tinw a member of the French Cabinet. His lifo's great work was in the field of chemistry. He found it pn analytical science ; he left it a synthetic art ; and as a chief agent in effecting this revolutionary change he Tendered incalculable service to the world's arts and manufacture*.