Marcellin Berthelot

"He formed by the action of the electric spark on a mixture of and ."

"Science is the real moral school; she teaches man the love and respect for the truth, without which all hope is chimerical."

"Although glycerine was discovered by Scheele in 1779, and its formula established by Pelouze in 1836, it was not until 1854 that its true composition was known... [when] Berthelot... proved that it is an alcoholic compound capable of interacting with... acids as acetic and palmitic."

"His methods were simple and direct. By means of the electric spark, and united to form ; or [acetylene was also obtained] by... [sparking] a mixture of hydrogen and ...or by... spark[ing] a mixture of hydrogen with vapour, or ."

"[O]f the numerous syntheses of Berthelot, or the building up of chemical compounds, many... were [previously] only obtained [naturally] through... life, either animal or vegetable."

"The word truth can not be used outside of science without a misuse of terms."

"If each one of us adds something to the common weal in the domain of science, or art, or morality, the reason is because long series of generations have lived, worked, thought, and suffered before us. The science which you honour to-day has been created by the patient labours of our predecessors."

"In fact, what we are can only be attributed for a small part to our labour and personal individuality, because we owe it almost entirely to our forefathers, both of blood and mind."

"Each one of us, whatever may have been his individual initiative, ought also to attribute a considerable portion of his success to his contemporaries who are working at the same time as himself at the great common task."

"Berthelots agricultural station and laboratory were at , and here experiments on vegetable soils, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in soils by the agency of microbes, the action of electricity on the growth of plants, etc., were conducted. Berthelot states that twenty-five pounds of per annum per acre might be fixed by bacteria."

"Is there still a statesman who doubts the services greater still that may be expected from this incessant progress?"

"In 1860 Berthelots Chimie Organique fondée sur la Synthèse, was published. It was the first... based entirely on synthesis."