840 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In 1768 lie obtained a place in a pharmacy at Stockholm, where he 

 was not allowed any part in laboratory-work. He would make experi- 

 ments, nevertheless, and so he studied from the windows of the shop 

 the effects of sunlight upon different bodies. He made himself known, 

 too, at Stockholm as a skillful chemist, and formed friendships with 

 the distinguished scientific men of the time. In 1770 he removed to 

 Upsala, where he was installed director of the laboratory-work in a 

 pharmacy, with permission to continue his own experiments. 



Forbern Bergman was then Professor of Chemistry in the Univer- 

 sity of Upsala, and the two men were soon brought into association. 

 Scheele's master had remarked that, on exposing melted saltpeter to a 

 continuous heat, a salt is developed which, on adding acetic acid, gives 

 out red vapors. Neither the chemist Bergman nor the mineralogist 

 Gahn could explain the phenomenon. Scheele had an explanation. 

 He said that the heated saltpeter absorbed phlogiston (is reduced, as 

 we would have it), and gave the salt of a new acid (nitrous acid), 

 which is weak, and can be expelled by acetic acid. Gahn told Berg- 

 man of this explanation, and he sought an introduction to the young 

 pharmacist. Thus was laid the foundation of a lasting friendship and 

 co-operation between the two. 



In 1775 Scheele obtained the direction of the pharmacy of Koping, 

 whose proprietor had just died, leaving the concern to his widow. 

 This gave him a more comfortable subsistence than he had enjoyed 

 before, although his task in keeping the establishment in good condi- 

 tion and paying up its debts was hard enough. Yet he wrote to one 

 of his friends at about this time : " You may think, perhaps, that ma- 

 terial cares are going to absorb me, and take me away from experi- 

 mental chemistry. Not at all ! That noble science is my ideal. Be 

 patient, and you will soon have something new to learn." He was 

 much annoyed about six months afterward by some one coming to buy 

 the pharmacy, and offers of other positions came to him from every 

 side, among them an offer of the superiutendency of a distillery, and 

 invitations to Stockholm, Berlin, and London, with salaries that would 

 have been tempting to common men. But the people of Koping said 

 that they would have no pharmacist but Scheele ; and he declined all 

 the invitations, saying : " I can not do more than eat my meat ; if I 

 can do that at Koping, I need not seek it elsewhere " ; and, in refer- 

 ence to an offer which had been made to him from Berlin : " After 

 mature reflection, I decline it. I lack considerably of being as far 

 advanced in chemistry as such a position requires, and I am persuaded 

 that I shall find my daily bread even at Koping." 



During his residence at Koping he only gave himself a single 

 vacation, when he went to Stockholm to attend a meeting of the Swed- 

 ish Academy of Sciences, of which he had been elected a member in 

 1775. It was the only meeting of the Academy he ever attended, al- 

 though nearly all of his papers were published in its proceedings. 



