844 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



soluble in water. Examining the liquid which was left, he observed 

 glycerine. 



In a memoir relative to a new method of preserving vinegar (1782), 

 Scheele showed that further change could be prevented by bringing 

 the vinegar to the boiling-point. Scheele was the first to examine the 

 substances which give an acid taste to fruits and plants. To this order 

 belongs his examination of the " salt of sorrel." He also, in one of bis 

 earlier scientific labors, isolated tartaric acid, and introduced the 

 method by wbich numerous other organic acids have since been sepa- 

 rated. In 1784 he discovered citric acid in the lemon, gooseberry, 

 and other fruits, and malic acid in the gooseberry and in fruits gener- 

 ally ; and shortly before his death he produced gallic acid, or " salt of 

 gall-nuts," from which he distilled pyrogallic acid, which has been 

 found useful in photography. He first found benzoic acid, saccharic 

 acid, and mucic acid. Examining what was called rhubarb-earth, in 

 1784, he found it to be composed of oxalate of lime, and from this 

 proceeded to show that that substance is generally present in roots 

 and bark. 



In animal chemistry, he examined the concretions of urinary cal- 

 culus, discovered uric acid, observed its connection with intermittent 

 fevers, and prepared alloxane and cyanuric acid. In 1780 he investi- 

 gated the phenomena of the curdling of milk, and speculated as to its 

 cause, and in this research discovered lactic acid. 



Scheele's nomination as member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 in 1775, is said to have been the only public mark of distinction he 

 received in his native land. He was elected to the Society of Natural- 

 ists in Berlin, in 1778 ; and of the Academy of Sciences of Turin, in 

 1780, in the presence of his king, Gustavus III. His Majesty, it is 

 said, had not heard much of Scheele before this, and was a little aston- 

 ished, on hearing the eulogies passed upon the newly-elected member, 

 to hear what a great man he had in his states. He was sorry that he 

 had done nothing for him, and decided to make amends ; he would 

 confer an order upon him. The minister to whom he gave his direc- 

 tions was puzzled, for he, too, did not know Scheele. The order was 

 conferred but upon another Scheele than the chemist ! 



Scheele's collected works were published at Leipsic, in Latin, in 

 1788-89, and in German in 1793. His papers in the Royal Academy 

 have been translated into English by Thomas Beddoes, and are pub- 

 lished under the title of " The Chemical Essays of C. W. Scheele." 



On the 21st of May, 1886, the one-hundredth anniversary of 

 Scheele's death, the people of Koping held an imposing celebration in 

 memory of the man who had distinguished their town by making it 

 the chosen home of one of the founders of the modern science of 

 chemistry ; and the representatives of science in Sweden, Germany, 

 France, Switzerland, and other countries, expressed their sympathy in 

 the occasion in appropriate messages. 



