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See also:BERTHELOT, MARCELLIN See also:PIERRE See also:EUGENE (1827–1907) , See also:French chemist and politician, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 29th of See also:October 1827, being the son of a See also:doctor. After distinguishing himself at school in See also:history and See also:philosophy, he turned to the study of See also:science. In 1851 he became a member of the See also:staff of the See also:College de See also:France as assistant to A. J. See also:Balard, his former See also:master, and about the same See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time he began his See also:life-See also:long friendship with Ernest See also:Renan. In 1854 he made his reputation by his doctoral thesis, Sur See also:les combinaisons de la glycerine avec les acides, which described a See also:series of beautiful researches in continuation and amplification of M. E. See also:Chevreul's classical See also:work. In 1859 he was appointed See also:professor of organic See also:chemistry at the Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie, and in 1865 he accepted the new See also:chair of organic chemistry, which was specially created for his benefit at the College de France. He became a member of the See also:Academy of See also:Medicine i;i 1863, and ten years afterwards entered the Academy of Sciences, of which he became perpetual secretary in 1889 in See also:succession to See also:- LOUIS
- LOUIS (804–876)
- LOUIS (893–911)
- LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
- LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian
Louis See also:Pasteur. He was appointed inspector See also:general of higher See also:education in 1876, and after his See also:election as life senator in 1881 he continued to take an active See also:interest in educational questions, especially as affected by compulsory military service. In the See also:Goblet See also:ministry of 1886–1887 he was See also:minister of public instruction, and in the See also:Bourgeois See also:cabinet of 1895–1896 he held the See also:portfolio for See also:foreign affairs. His scientific See also:jubilee was celebrated in Paris in 1901. He died suddenly, immediately after the See also:death of his wife, on thel8th of See also:March 1907, at Paris, and with her was buried in the See also:Pantheon.
The fundamental conception that underlay all Berthelot's chemical work was that all chemical phenomena depend on the See also:action of See also:physical forces which can be determined and measured. When he began his active career it was generally believedthat, although some instances of the synthetical See also:production of organic substances had been observed, on the whole organic chemistry must remain an See also:analytical science and could not become a constructive one, because the formation of the sub-stances with which it deals required the intervention of vital activity in some shape. To this attitude he offered uncompromising opposition, and by the synthetical production of numerous See also:hydrocarbons, natural fats, sugars and other bodies he proved that organic compounds can be formed by See also:ordinary methods of chemical manipulation and obey the same See also:laws as inorganic substances, thus exhibiting the " creative See also:character in virtue of which chemistry actually realizes the abstract conceptions of its theories and classifications—a See also:prerogative so far possessed neither by the natural nor by the See also:historical sciences." His investigations on the See also:synthesis of organic compounds were published in numerous papers and books, including Chimie organique fondee sur la synthcse (186o) and Les Carbures d'hydrogene (1901). Again he held that chemical phenomena are not governed by any See also:peculiar laws See also:special to themselves, but are explicable in terms of the general laws of See also:mechanics that are in operation throughout the universe; and this view he See also:developed, with the aid of thousands of experiments, in his Mecanique chimique (1878) and his Thermochimie (1897). This See also:branch of study naturally conducted him to the investigation of See also:explosives, and on the theoretical See also:side led to the results published in his work Sur la force de la poudre et See also:des matieres explosives (1872), while on the See also:practical side it enabled him to render important services to his See also:country as See also:president of the scientific See also:defence See also:committee during the See also:siege of Paris in 187o–71 and subsequently as See also:chief of the French explosives committee. In the later years of his life he turned to the study of the earlier phases of the science which he did so much to advance, and students of chemical history are greatly indebted to him for his See also:book on Les Origines de l'alchimic (1885) and his Introduction a l'etude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen dge (1889), as well as for See also:publishing See also:translations of various old See also:Greek, See also:Syriac and Arabic See also:treatises on See also:alchemy and chemistry (Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, 1887–1888, and La Chimie an moyen See also:age, 1893). He was also the author of Science et philosophic (1886), which contains a well-known See also:letter to Renan on " La Science ideale et la science See also:positive," of La Revolution chimique, See also:Lavoisier (189o), of Science et morale (1897), and of numerous articles in La Grande Encyclopedic, which he helped to establish.
End of Article: BERTHELOT, MARCELLIN PIERRE EUGENE (1827–1907)
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