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478 IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
express the various
degrees of intensity of the
elective attraction by &
vast number of his
so-called tables of affinity
— works highly esteemed
by his contemporaries—,
pointed out the acid
properties of carbonic
acid and its occurrence
in the atmosphere;
demonstrated the cause of
the difference between
pig iron, steel, and soft
iron. K. V. Scheele
(1742/86) anticipated
Priestley’s discovery of
oxygen (»fire-air»),
ascertained its most important
chemical features, and
proved that the air is
a mixture of this kind of
gas and another, which
he called »corrupted air»
(= nitrogen); set up, in
a phlogistic spirit, an
independent hypothesis
with regard to the
phenomena of combustion;
discovered the elements
chlorine, barium,
manganese, molybdenum, and
tungsten, and, among
more important inorganic
combinations, arsenic acid, arsenetted hydrogen, hydrofluoric acid, and Prussic
acid, proved that phosphorus renders iron »cold-short», discovered the qualitative
composition of sulphuretted hydrogen, examined the influence of sunlight on chloride
of silver, disproved the view of the transformation of silicic acid into alumina
and that of water into earth. Also in organic chemistry Scheele’s experimental
investigations broke the way for a new era. Glycerine and a large number of
organic acids were discovered by him. — J. G. Gahn (1745/1818) showed the
phosphoric acid to be a constituent of bone-earth, and for the first time showed
this acid in the mineral kingdom.
With J. J. Berzelius (1779 1848) chemistry entered on a new stage. It
was he who brought about the admission and application of antiphlogistic doctrines
also into the scientific literature of Sweden. With these doctrines he combined
the atomic hypothesis and the electro-chemical theory and thus formed a
homogeneous system of theoretic chemistry. He determined the quantitative
composition of the chief inorganic bodies, and showed that this can always be expressed
by constant and simple numerical ratio, by which means he created a firm footing
for Dalton’s theory of atoms, and at the same time by aid of Gay-Lussac’s law
of volumes and by isomorphism he achieved an exact determination of the atomic
weights of the elements; he systematically developed the oxide theory started by
Lavoisier, and the dualism closely associated with it, of which, in the electro-chemical
Statue of Karl Vilhelm Scheele, Stockholm.
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