Besides making outstanding contributions to science, Pierre Berthelot was an accomplished historian, philosopher, and public servant. His father, a doctor, spent most of his life treating patients in the poor neighborhoods of Paris, France. Although the family had little money to spare, Berthelot's father helped finance his schooling and graduate research until Berthelot was over 30 years old.

As a student, Berthelot showed that organic compounds such as phenol could be synthesized from acetic acid and then be prepared from other chemicals including carbon tetrachloride. Berthelot was one of the first scientists to use the word synthesis to describe the production of organic compounds from their elements.

In 1854 Berthelot earned his doctorate with a thesis on the synthesis of natural fats he created by combining glycerol with fatty acids. This research built upon the work of Michel-Eugène Chevreul, who had established the branch of chemistry covering the...