Berthelot received a public funeral, and his remains were placed in the Panthéon on 25th March 1907, side by side with those of his wife. The crowds which gathered to see the two bodies laid to rest together in the nation's great mausoleum proved the popularity and universal renown of Berthelot, who did perhaps as much for chemistry as Pasteur did for medicine, if not more; for not only did he open up new fields of inquiry and lead the way to innumerable discoveries and developments, but he practically founded new branches of science, namely, synthetic and thermo-chemistry. Berthelot was one of those "prodigious" men who honour every country and every epoch. He made science the highest and noblest end of man. With Berthelot science became a real creative power. He proved that organic and inorganic chemical laws are identical. He did not get so far, by the imperfect means at his disposal in his laboratory, as to create a leaf or a fruit, but he did produce certain essential parts of the whole. What a field did he open up to human activity! Chemistry at once created artificial substances akin to natural ones, and by leading the way in this immense field of discovery Berthelot placed himself in the foremost ranks of the benefactors of humanity.
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A few words about the burial-place of Berthelot will form a suitable conclusion to the present chapter. The
