NATURE Marcelin Berthelot.1

NOVEMBER 5, 1927] NATURE 659 most cases important that he should be given by the appointment of Prof. Lennard-Jones as leave of absence at regular intervals, and encour professor of theoretical physics. In addition, the aged to visit other scientific centres, whether at institution of research fellowships to attract to home or abroad, and to get into personal contact the laboratory young men who have shown marked with the workers in his special field. The value of ability for research is a step in the right direction, such 'refresher' intervals is difficult to exaggerate, and I hope that it will be possible in the near future whether to the individual or the institution which to add to their number. Under such excellent he serves. I am sure that there are few scientific conditions we may confidently anticipate that this men that would not benefit by such opportunities. laboratory will fulfil the wishes of the donor by At no time in the history of physics has there developing into one of our most important centres been a closer co-operation and sympathy between of training and research. the two great branches of physics, the experimental The University owes much to the public spirit and theoretical. With the ever-growing complexity shown by the city of Bristol and to the wise of experimentation and technique, it is rare in generosity of its citizens. I am sure that all these days that a scientific man can claim to be scientific men are grateful to the University proficient in both of these branches. There has and to the donor, Mr. Henry Herbert Wills, thus arisen the need that these complementary whose generous benefactions have made possible divisions should be adequately represented in a the erection and endowment of this splendid Department of Physics. I am very glad to see laboratory dedicated to the pursuit of scientific that this has been recognised in your University knowledge. Marcelin Berthelot.1 By Prof. HENRY E. ARMSTRONG, F.R.S. HE highest testimony we can giVe to the still alive who knew him, though not at the be T genius of a departed colleague is to study ginning of .. Ujls hope that these will his work and its bearings, as in such exercise we I give us of the" that will enable are bound to find food for thought and gather us to follow sychological development as a inspiration for the future. As one of the older worker. For Pasteur we apparently have this chemists, I would fain bear such slight witness as information ; the lessons :Jl from it are in I may to the effect and value of Berthelot's valuable. Weee to Jhe clearest under achievements, being the more inclined to this task standing of is t ra e t and to be able to from having noticed, in the younger generation, follow the g dual unfolding of his powers : to a strange lack of interest in the pioneers who laid appreciate the masterly logic of his disposition: the foundations of the science they would master, to see one continuous line of thought pervading now so mighty a structure--even a failure to all his labours, above all, his desire to serve his understand the language these pioneers used. fellows. Berthelot offers a surprising contrast : Continuity with the past is desirable, if only in we know so little of the man. His seems to have order that we may understand the mental attitude been a more universal genius. We are in sore need of inquirers at the time they undertook their of some thread of continuity to guide us through labours and be in a position to evaluate the mental the maze of his mind. development of their ideas. No episode in the history of chemical science is Berthelot himself, who seems to have been of greater interest than that of the discovery of extremely well read even at an early age, through dephlogisticated air by Priestley and the instant his studies of the alchemists endeavoured to shed appreciation of its vallle by Lavoisier-conveyed light upon the beginnings of chemistry and has in the magic word ' oxygen,' a word, however, thereby made elear the extraordinary difficulty the magic of which is not heard by young ears of the task. Few to-day can appreciate his own to-day, even in France. ·we can, in a measure, rigid attitude towards atomic weights-how it was put ourselves into Lavoisier's position-our habit that he wrote C = 6 and 0 = 8 almost up to the last. of thought still being largely that which he in If his intimate story could be written, it would troduced in raising chemistry from an empiric art probably be one of a mind ever striving to be to a philosophy. We can no longer enter into the scientific, yet held in the thrall of that superhuman spirit of Priestley's work-we cannot even read force we term conservatism : the force by which his language with understanding. He has been our human society is held together and bound commonly regarded as a pure empiric, but it is the instinct of the herd-thro\lgh the exercise of impossible to give credit to such estimate of his which we alone survive. On the other hand, it character. Berthelot, indeed, has questioned the also separates us and especially from the past--- truth of his representation of himself as an empiric. as each new faith tends to antagonise the mind There are numerous passages in his works which of its holder against an earlier form. may be interpreted as proof that behind all his The rising generation has little if any under inquiries there was both method and logical standing of the language spoken even so recently as purpose, though maybe the purpose of intuition in Berthelot's early days. There are, however, men only. In the preface to his collected works (1790), ' The English original of an 'appreciation' contributed to Chimie he himself advocates philosophical studies in the et Irulustrie in connexion with the centenary celebrations of Marcelin Berthelot. following most remarkable passage : No. 3027, VoL. 120] © 1927 Nature Publishing Group 660 NATURE [NOVEMBER 5, 1927 I am sorry to have occasion to observe that natural 1 as each new number came to hand. Some point science is very little, if at all, the object of educat-ion he always made. His method had the advantage in this country, in which many individuals have distinguished themselves so much by their applica that he made his points singly, so they went home. tion to it. And I would obset"VO that, if we wish to Myself a student under Hofmann, Frankland and lay a good foundation for a philosophical taste and Kolbe, three of the great pioneersofourscienceon the philosophical pursuits, persons :should be accm:tomed organic side, I was specially prepared to appreciate to the sight of experiments and processes in early Berthelot's early suceesses in synthetic chemistry. life. They should more especially be initiated in the theory and practice of investigation by which many Few to-day will realise how grettt was the impression of the old discoveries may be made to be really their he made by his production of alcohol from ethylene own-on which and water, of account they formic acid will bo much more valued by from carbonic them. And, in oxide and soda, a great variety of acetylene of articles, very from carbon young persons and hydrogen may be n1ade so far acquainted - this last a with everything particu I arly necessary to be striking dis previously covery at the known as t,o time when we engage (which were beginning they will do with particular alac to specify or rity) in pursuits ganic chemis truly original. try as the chemistry of Nowhere, in hydrocarbons our schools, and their deri have we yet vatives. The acted up to barrier between these recom the livingworld mendations : and the labora we pay faint tory had in heed to them deed been even in our broken down, colleges. in 1828, by ltismygood Wohler's fortune to be achievement in able to over preparing look the period from ammorua from 1865 to and cyanic acid, the present but this was a time-an inter case of Berze val of more lian metameric than sixty change, not years. I still synthesis. Ber remember how thelot went greatly, at the much further beginning of M.utCELIN BERTHELOT. and fired our my career, I imagination by was fascinated by Berthelot's achievements, especi showing how two and two might be put to ally by reading his book on organic synthesis ( 1860). gether to make four and in ways which were 1£nglish chemists, I may say, have always been extraordinary in their directness and simplicity. accustomed to pay close attention to the work of Not only was our vision greatly extended but their French colleagues, especially that published our ambitions also became boundless. We saw in the Comptes rendus de l Academie des Sciences. that the pass over the heights was won and Not only is the concise form in which work is there that the conquest of the great kingdom beyond presented eminently attractive but also, almost was a mere matter of time. We now seem able invariably, the force of genius is apparent in each to make what we will, when once we know what communication, some new idea being stated, some we are called upon to do. No plant is safe from advance recorded. Moreover, Berthelot compelled our imitation. The world is arrayed in laboratory attention by his persistent appearance on the boards products.

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