168 MEMOIR OF OERSTED. 



happy concurrence of circumstances brong'lit Oersted also into intercourse with 

 Steit'ens, and the two brothers Mynstcr, with whom he long continued to main- 

 tain philosophical and even theological discussions, which, whatever their vivacity, 

 were never permitted to interfere with the claims of a reciprocal friendship. 



The rectitude of his judgment always prevented these accessory exercises of 

 thouo-ht from impairing the progress of his scientific studies ; but they did not a 

 little contribute to draw general attention to him; a kindly attention which 

 greatly facilitated the development of his subsequent career. 



Of that career positive science was always the basis, and his success was rapid. 

 At his examination in pharmacy, May 20, 1797, he astonished his judges by the 

 extent of his hnowlcdge, and one of them, on goiug away, having met with Pro- 

 fessor Jlanthey, proprietor of the pharmacy in which Oersted had labored, 

 addressed him in these words : " Wliat a candidate is this you have sent us ; he 

 knows more than all of us together !" The following year Oersted obtained a 

 new prize from the Academy ; this time on a question of medicine. In 1800 

 Professor Manthe}', V)eing about to travel abroad, devolved on him the direction 

 of his pharmacy, and nominated him to suppl}^ his place, during absence, in the 

 lecture-room of the Academy of Surgery. The same year Oersted was received 

 as adjunct of the faculty of medicine. 



At this epoch he occupied hi mself very actively with chemistry. The researches 

 of Wintrel on the simple galvanic chain had already led to the conception of an 

 electro-chemical theory, and Ritter had inferred, from the ordinary chemical and 

 eleetrical facts, the identity of the forces which produce them. The labors of 

 Berthollet on the laws of affinities had also introduced new general views on 

 chemical forces. Herein lay the subjects of Oersted's investigations during the 

 years 1799 and 1800. Earlier studies had prepared him for these general views, 

 and efforts to surmount certain lines of demarcation established in science by dis- 

 tinctions too decisive, had even directly revealed to him some of them. An 

 analysis of the chemical philosophy of Fourcroy, read by Oersted in 1799 to the 

 Scandinavian societ}'-, and printed the following year in its bulletin, is unfortu- 

 nately the sole trace which remains for the public of these first essays. We find 

 there the alkalis and earths already ranged in a single series, which, commencing 

 with the most energetic alkalis, terminates with a body rather acid than alkaline, 

 silicium preceded by aluminium. 



But, in 1800, the discovery of the electric pile by Volta threw all the chemists 

 into commotion. Throughout Europe there was a desire to witness its effects. 

 Everywhere were constructed similar piles or columns formed of pairs composed 

 each of a disk of copper and a disk of zinc, pairs superposed on one another and 

 separated by a piece of moistened cloth. Soon, every one, in the modish as in the 

 learned world, knew by experience the strange shocks and sensations felt in the 

 ^vrists, in the elbows, when in each hand is held a metallic wire terminating at 

 one of the two opposite poles of the pile, and one ie thus placed in the course of 

 the electric current to which the pile gives rise. Oersted was not among the 

 last to make experiments v/ith this wonderful instrument. Having applied it 

 especially to the decomposition of divers saline solutions, he gave expression to 

 this first law, that the quantities of alkalis and acids set at liberty in a solution, 

 by the action of the pile, are in proportion to their respective capacities of satu- 

 ration. Here, then, was a step in the career in which he was destined one day 

 to immortalize himself. 



Oersted was now 23 years of age ; the time had come for him to travel, as, in 

 their youth, the German and Scandinavian savants almost always do. He set 

 out in 1801, and his absence extended to two and a half years. Everywhere 

 he found with the learned a reception which surpassed the hopes of his friends. 

 His natural animation, joined to a candid and unaffected self-reliance, stood him 

 in better stead than the strongest letters of recommendation. His countenance 

 seemed to announce a certain timidity, bat no sooner did any subject awaken in 



