Pierre Eugene Marcellin Berthelot: an illustrious pioneering French chemist.

This article highlights the numerous achievements of o highly versatile scientist and public servant of the nineteenth century.

Pierre Eugene Marcellin Berthelot was born in Paris on October 25, 1827 and died there on March 18, 1907. He followed courses at Collage Henri IV in Paris and entered the College de France to study medicine, perhaps because his father was a physician. However, he did not continue in medicine after coming tinder the influence of Jean-Baptiste Andre Dumas and other professors, his interest having turned to chemistry. In 1851, he was named assistant to Antoine Balard (1802-1876), titular professor of chemistry in the Collage de France, and only eight years later was appointed professor of organic chemistry in the Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie. Later on, a special chair of studies was created for Berthelot at the Collage de France [1], which he held until the end of this life. Through his extensive original and fundamental research and exceptionally broad interests he was to become "one of the most distinguished chemists of the 19th century" [2]. In addition, Berthelot was a philosopher and in later life embarked, like the famous chemist Dumas [3], upon a successful parallel career as a politician!

Bertholot's impressive scientific contributions were duly recognized. In 1863, he was elected a member of the Academy of Medicine and ten years later was admitted to the important Academy of Sciences. Ultimately, he was elected a member of the prestigious Academie francaise. in 1889, Berthelot was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, a most influential post that had been held 21 years earlier by Dumas [3].

Contributions to Organic Chemistry

During his early career, Marcellin Berthelot developed general methods for the synthesis of alcohols and hydrocarbons. In the 1850s, he systematically synthesized many organic compounds such as ethyl alcohol and methane. In 1856, Berthelot prepared methane by reacting carbon disulphide with hydrogen sulphide over healed copper [2]. In 1862, he obtained acetylene in the electric arc between carbon electrodes in a hydrogen atmosphere [4], while using an apparatus that became known as "l'oeuf de Berthelot". He showed that it was possible to create organic substances from their constituent elements, i.e., hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. He had realized that in 1828 Friedrich Wohler (1800-1882) had brought about a total synthesis of urea (an organic compound) from only inorganic materials, and without the intervention of "vital force" (life). Thus, he set out to achieve similar complete …