“ In organic chemistry, his study of the ketones and aldehydes, begun in 1857, provided him with the subject of his other doctoral thesis. In 1862 he prepared secondary propyl alcohol, and in 1863, with James Mason Crafts (b. 1839) , for many years a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, he obtained various organometallic compounds of silicon. A few years later further work, with Albert Ladenburg, on the same element yielded silicochloroform and led to a demonstration of the close analogy existing between the behaviour in combination of silicon and carbon. ”

“ In 1871 he began to lecture in place of A. L. O. L. Des Cloizeaux (1817–1897) at the École Normale, and in 1876 he became professor of mineralogy at the Sorbonne, but on the death of Wurtz in 1884 he exchanged that position for the chair of organic chemistry. He died at Montauban on the 20th of April 1899. Friedel achieved distinction both in mineralogy and organic chemistry. ”

“ In the former he was one of the leading workers, in collaboration from 1879 to 1887 with Émile Edmond Sarasin (1843–1890) , at the formation of minerals by artificial means, particularly in the wet way with the aid of heat and pressure, and he succeeded in reproducing a large number of the natural compounds. ”