Show A GREAT GRAT PHILOSOPHER AND ND CHEMIST Ono or ot tho the greatest ot or modern Frenchmen was Marcelin Berthelot wh whose se anniversary was wad celebrated on October 25 A magazine writer gives this sketch of ot him him- Berthelots Berthelot's contributions were of or extraordinary range and far tar reach reach reaching ing effect More than 1200 treat treat- treatises stand to his credit an IndI- IndI IndIcation cation of ot his bis enormous Industry and of ot a B. spirit encyclopedia In Its scope Many of ot these are now classics In the literature of or chem chem- Despite the syntheses that had been effected before Berthelots Berthelot's Berthel Berthel- Berthelots ot's day no less a chemist than despaired of or assembling molecules Into organic compounds similar to those ot or nature Or Organic Organic ganic meant something Intimately ly associated with life liCe and between the living organism and Inert mAt mAt- milter mAtter matter ter a chasm yawned that science saw little hope of ot bridging Ber- Ber Berthelot's Berthelots the lots lot's brilliant syntheses of ot al alcohols al- al alcohols organic acids adds benzene ethylene acetylene acetylene syntheses syntheses of ot the ery very atoms of ot which organic org nl ni nature was as composed startled composed startled chemistry with their new flies HIes It If the chemist now wields a a. power over matter that seems little short of or miraculous it Is part partly ly because b of or Berthelots Berthelot's work More than a mere mer experimenter Berthelot realized the vast poten pot en ot of his discoveries The domain In which chemical synthe synthe- synthesis sis is Its creative power is greater than that of or nature her her- herself herself herself self he h said As he synthesized atoms so 10 he his con con- conception of ot life and the universe unhorse Into a whole that saw In an amoeba and in a star two manifestations ot of the same matter malter To the true research scientist the class to which Berthelot belongs be be- belongs longs a discovery ery is but a key which will unlock a new ne door In Inthe Inthe the unexplored house of ot science an inspiration as well as an achievement When WIlen he synthesized formic acid the inertia of ot his atoms struck him At once his Inquisitiveness inquisitiveness was aroused Out ot of the studies then begun came new dis dis- discoveries discoveries dis- dis and theories that gave gue thermo chemistry a surer foundation tion While hile Crookes painted his gloomy picture of a too fecund world stoning starvIng because ot of Its in In- inability Inability ability to feed teed its ever Increasing ever Increasing offspring Berthelot saw the pos pos- possibilities possibilities of or flying atmosphere nitro nitro- nitrogen nitrogen nitrogen gen and establishing a huge fer ter fertilizer Industry and making two blades grow where here but one grew before Ills IUs quick imagination even conceived conceited it possible to dis dis- dispense dispense dis- dis pense with agriculture and with the slaughterhouse slaughter Had lied he h not him him- himself himself self succeeded in building bUnding up or or- organic organic ganic compounds Might not some chemist of or the future produce food out ot of nothing but the gases of ot the atmosphere Thus originated the conception of ot meal mul pellets since widely r exploited |