(under Balard, the discoverer of bromine). In 1854 he took his degree of docteur ès sciences with a remarkable thesis on the "Combinaisons de la Glycérine avec les Acides et Réproduction Artificelle des Corps gras neutres."
In 1859 he was appointed to the chair of chemistry in L'École de Pharmacie, holding the post for five years. In 1864 a new chair, that of organic chemistry, was created for him at the Collège de France, which he occupied until his death; and here it was that he worked with a determination unequalled by any other chemist. He produced over a thousand memoirs, embracing every department of chemistry. Although Wöhler, in 1828, produced urea artificially, and Kolbe synthetized acetic acid in 1845, Berthelot was undoubtedly the creator or founder of organic synthesis. Monsieur Henri Poincaré says of Berthelot that "c'est non seulement un grand chimiste, mais aussi un grand philosophe. Il possédait un esprit universel. Sa déouverte sur la synthèse des corps organiques suffirait pour immortalizer son nom. Ses travaux sur les corps explosifs ont rendu également au pays d'inappréciables services."
This remarkable man had "many irons in the fire," for he was not only a great chemist, but a politician, philosopher, and author.
The theories and discoveries of Berthelot are grouped round two great ideas—the synthesis of organic com-
