Marcellin Pierre Eugène Berthelot Paris, 25 de outubro de 1827, Paris, 18 de março de 1907,

 

 

 

 

Professor Berthelot was born in Paris, October 25, 1827, and died in the same city, from heart failure, a few hours after the death of his wife, March 18, 1907. Like Moissan, the whole of Berthelot’s active life was spent in Paris. He received the Doctor degree from the University in 1854, was ‘‘Préparateur” in the Collége de France, 1859-76. In 1860 he became professor of organic chemistry at the Ecole de Pharmacie and in 1865 a chair of theoretical chemistry was created for him in the Collége de France.

It is impossible to give, in a brief space, any adequate account of Berthelot’s investigations; his original papers are numbered by the hundreds and include contributions to every branch of chemical science. In organic chemistry he is, perhaps, best known for his investigations into the nature of fats, for his synthetic work and his contributions to our knowledge of the terpenes. Although, of course, he did not discover acetylene, yet everything of importance that we know of its properties is due to his investigations. Analytical chemistry has also benefited by his labors. In the domain of explosives he was second to none, and it is due essentially to his work that France became equipped with smokeless powder. To Berthelot we owe an enormous quantity of thermo-chemical data and it is because of his supreme influence that French In-His physical-chemical work extended much further, Resell and included numerous investigations in electro-chemistry, the action of light, etc. Berthelot contributed largely to extending our knowledge of the chemistry of plants and animals, including the chemical activity of bacteria. In short, it may be said with truth that his contributions to any one branch of chemistry were each sufficient to earn for him no small measure of fame—how much more is due, therefore, for his contributions to all regions of the science?

Berthelot’s activities were by no means confined to the laboratory, he was the author of numerous text-books and of many essays, reports, pamphlets, etc. Special mention must be made of his volumes on ancient alloys. His political activities are shown by his being Minister of Education, 1886-— 87, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1895-96. It is hardly necessary to add that he was a member of practically every government commission which had any connection with science. That his native country appreciated him is shown by his becoming a life Senator in 1882. He has been Secretary of the French Academy since 1889. In 1876 he was appointed Inspector-General of Higher Education.

Berthelot was a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society, Honorary Member of the German and American Chemical Societies and a Foreign Member of the Chemical Society (London). He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1877 and subsequently received from it the Copley and Davy medals. In 1901 Berthelot received an international ‘‘medal of honor,”’ in recognition of his position among French chemists and of his services to the science.

 

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https://hemerotecadigital.cm-lisboa.pt/OBRAS/IlustracaoPort/1907/N59/N59_master/N59.pdf

https://archive.org/details/rimpressiondela20univgoog/mode/2up?q=Berchelot 

https://archive.org/details/war-cry-1962-Aug-25/mode/2up?q=%22Pierre+Berchelot%22 

https://archive.org/details/biostor-203847/mode/2up?q=%22Eug%C3%A8ne+Berthelot%22 

https://archive.org/details/sim_time_1927-09-19_10_12/page/n25/mode/2up?q=%22Eug%C3%A8ne+Berthelot%22