19^ Mr Johnston's Visit to Berzelius, 



these experiments he was open with every thing, anxious io 

 explain every minute circumstance necessary to the attainment 

 of precise results, and in the most familiar way to make me 

 acquainted with all the little contrivances experience had 

 shown him to be useful in the prosecution of analytical inves- 

 tigations. " Come,'' he would say, " while this process is 

 going on, I will show you two or three little things that you 

 may find it convenient to know." And it was the same every 

 day ; so that, independent of the instruction I gained, the time 

 also passed most pleasantly. And then, when we were not 

 engaged in the laboratory, he would show me his minerals or 

 his preparations, of both of which he possesses many rarities, — 

 or point out to me the results of foreign chemists on some sub- 

 ject we had been talking of,—- or assist me in translating the 

 passage if I found it obscure, — or himself translate whole 

 pages to me from an author I could not understand. 



Berzelius used formerly to have private working-pupils, a 

 practice he has now discontinued. Their number, however, 

 was always small ; so that in the whole of Sweden there are 

 only eight or nine who have enjoyed that advantage, and in 

 Germany there may be as many more. He is always willing, 

 however, to receive visitors into his laboratory, and to teach 

 them those resources which his long experience has made 

 known to him. 



It is interesting to learn the first steps of an eminent man in 

 his own favourite track. Berzelius had gone to Upsala to 

 study medicine as a profession, and among other branches, of 

 course applied himself to chemistry. Afzelius, who is still a 

 professor in Upsala, and his adjunct, Ekeberg, had charge of 

 the chemical prelections and experiments. It was then the 

 custom, as I believe it still is at Upsala, Stockholm, Lund, 

 and Copenhagen, that, besides the public lectures, the students 

 were permitted to attend the laboratory and ojperate, under cer- 

 tain restrictions. At that period each student could demand 

 an operation once a week. Berzelius, like the rest, went to 

 the laboratory soon after he had commenced his chemical 

 course, and asked for an operation. The first that was given 

 him was to form colcothar of vitriol, (crocus martis,) by heat- 

 ing sulphate of iron in a crucible. ". Well," says he, " every 



