The Centenaries of Gerhardt and Wurtz

Abstract

IT is surely a coincidence not without its special significance that, at the very time when France, with the sympathy of the greater part of the civilised world, is nobly struggling to regain the provinces of which she was despoiled nearly half a century ago, it should be her pious duty and peculiar privilege to celebrate the centenaries of two of her many eminent sons, both illustrious in the annals of chemical science, both Alsatians, and Frenchmen to their very finger-tips. These events, occurring under present conditions, we may be sure, have not failed to impress the soul of France, or to stimulate and strengthen her resolution to gather again within her fold those compatriots of whom a brutal and arrogant despotism had ruthlessly robbed her. Subjects of which Gerhardt and Wurtz are types are, indeed, among the most precious of her assets. In thus commemorating the services of these distinguished Alsatians, the Chemical Society of France has also expressed the sentiments of admiration and esteem with which those services are regarded wherever science is appreciated.