.J94 Mr Johnston'^ VUU to Befzdius. 



eluded medicine, botany, and chemical pharmacy. * At a 

 later period, four more professorships were, instituted, and 

 that of chemical pharmacy became the branch of Berzelius. 

 As matters formerly stood, though entitled professor of bo- 

 tany, he never gave lectures on that science, at least in Stock- 

 holm. To the cadets of the Military College of Carlberg, 

 near Stockholm, he formerly gave lessons on this subjecL On 

 medicine alone he lectured for two years, after which time he 

 commenced, also a chqmiqal course. His medical prelections 

 .were always well attended — his chemical in former times very 

 indifferently, and for a very sufficient reason. It was the cus- 

 t9m in Stockholm, as it still is at Upsala, to give dry lectures 

 on chemistry without experiments, than which scarcely any 

 thing can be more tiresome and uninteresting. " I knew not 

 how to set about them,'\says Berzelius: " and it was not till 

 1812 when I was in London, that Dr Marcet took me several 

 times to his lectures, and gave me besides a copy of the list of 

 experiments for his course by which to regulate my own. This 

 list I improved and augmented so much, that when I after- 

 wards met Dr Marcet at Geneva, he took a copy of mine, and 

 since that time it has been copied and re-copied by different 

 persons, perhaps fifty or sixty times, and each varies or aug- 

 ments it in something." The addition of experimental illus- 

 trations soon gave the chemical the superiority over the medi- 

 cal classes in public estimation, so that while in Stockholm 

 the medical lectures are but thinly attended, those on chemis- 

 try obtain a well filled auditory. My visit to Berzelius was 

 during the summer vacation, so that I had not the pleasure of 

 hearing him lecture ; but as he delivers them either extempore 

 .,opr merely from notes, I should think they must be very inte- 



* How many branches are still taught by one person in some of the 

 foreign universities may be seen by the following announcement in the 

 *•' Catalogus Lectionum " of the university of Upsala, for the season com- 

 mencing in October 1829. Adamus Afzclius, Med. Doctor. Phil. Magis- 

 ter, Materiae Mcdicaj et Dietetica' Professor Reg. et Extraord. Atque Fa- 

 cultatis Mcdicffi Adsessor, hoc Anno Praelectionibus publicis, in Auditorio 

 Medico Hora IV habcndis, Diacteticam Semestri praeterito inchoatam 

 praelcgerc perget ; privatim vero, in suis Aedibus, Semestri autumnali 

 Medicamenta simi)licia monstrabit, et vernali Elementa tradet Materise 

 Mcdica,', cum Zoologica, tum Botanica. 



