HANS CHRISTIAN OERSTED 217 



with an extremely modest mode of living -were of the 

 widest possible description, but principally concerned with 

 science, philosophy, and medicine. At the age of twenty- 

 two he obtained his doctorate in medicine. At the same 

 time he was allowed to give lectures on chemistry and meta- 

 physics, and took over the management of an apothecary's 

 business. 



At this time Volta's discovery became known, and Oersted 

 immediately commenced to take an interest in it. Later he 

 made an extensive journey to many German University 

 towns, where he made the acquaintance of numerous emi- 

 nent contemporaries, who were quickly won over by his 

 lively mind, his youthful freshness, and his almost childlike 

 appearance and behaviour. In the year 1806, he became 

 professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen, 

 where he continued, with fevv' interruptions, to deliver a 

 great number of lectures, also public ones. Before he made 

 his discovery, he made a second long tour through Ger- 

 many, and to Paris, and married. The discovery brought 

 him great honour, and also many endowments and prizes, and 

 from that time forth he was one of the most eminent and in- 

 fluential personalities in his own country. In course of 

 his public activities, which later on increased, he joined the 

 so-called 'Liberal' or 'Free Thought' party, which grew up 

 at that time. He then undertook a third long tour to 

 France, England, Norway, and again to Germany, where he 

 met Gauss. We must also mention his measurements of the 

 compressibility of water, which were executed in his later 

 years. At his desire he was presented, as a place of retire- 

 ment, with a country house surrounded by a park, but 

 before he could move into it, he died at the age of seventy- 

 four. 



Oersted's discovery was taken up at once by a great many 

 people. Above all, it immediately afforded a good method of 

 measuring electric current; all that was needed was a fixed 



