Mr Johnstorrs Visit to Berzelius. 205 



cavalier ;" yet even they cannot tell why Berzelius should have 

 treated him with such exceeding want of respect. At Copen- 

 hagen I was led to believe there was some personal feeling 

 mixed up with this hostihty ,• but on talking over the matter 

 with Berzelius himself he assured me there was not the slight- 

 est foundation for such an opinion ; and he moreover told me, 

 — a thing which he did not authorize me to state, but which I 

 am led to hope he may be glad to see thus pubicly expres- 

 sed, that he would now willingly withdraw the offensive words 

 he employed in regard to Thomson's book ; and I may add, 

 that he did not appear half pleased at their being raked up and 

 republished in the Philosophical Magazine after the lapse of 

 two years, and when every body else was trying to forget them. 

 Between JDavy and Berzelius there was a personal dislike, 

 arising first from some errors in the chemistry of the former, 

 which Dr Young induced Berzelius when in London to write 

 out for him confidentially, and which, on the return of Berzehus 

 to Sweden, he communicated to Davy. These remarks of- 

 fended Davy exceedingly, and his irritation was carried still 

 farther by a letter of Berzelius which appeared soon after in a 

 German journal. Irritation on the part of Berzelius was ex- 

 cited at a later period, when Davy was in Sweden. Hearing 

 while at Gottenburg that Berzelius was in the south of Swe- 

 den he wrote him desiring he would not leave Helsinborg 

 till a certain day, when he would meet him. Accordingly, 

 Berzelius, with Orsted, and I believe Brongniart, were there at 

 the time, and waited two days beyond it, till the two latter 

 lost patience and set off*, and Berzelius had his horses in his 

 carriage when news was brought that the Englishman had ar- 

 rived. And when they met, Davy's excuse was, " that he had 

 found such capital fishing hy the way that he could not think 

 of leavifig it.''^ The waiting and the excuse, conjoined with 

 the hauteur which in later life made Davy forget most of his 

 old friends, and his old friends dislike him, were sufficient to 

 create an unfriendly feeling ; so, after spending four hours 

 together, they parted. " Any degree or mark of respect I 

 was disposed to give him, as a great philosopher," said Berze- 

 lius ; — " it was a pity to see a mind like his stoop to the de- 

 mand of deference as a man of the world." Still was Davy 



XEW SERIES. VOL. II, NO. II. APRIL 1830. O 



