1S2 MEMOIR OF OERSTED. 



dinavian nations miglit tlins become, as it were, tln-ee branches drawing in com- 

 mon their intellectual nourishment from the same radical stock. 



It was never the misfortune of Oersted to witness any diminution of reputa- 

 tion. In 184G, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, he again traveled into Ger- 

 many, France and England. In an interesting notice of Oersted read 7th Novem- 

 ber, 1851, before the Royal Society of Sciences of Copenhagen, M. Forchham- 

 mer, who had accompanied him, tells us that this journey resembled an ovation. 

 In England, especially. Oersted was received by the most eminent politicians 

 and men of science with a distinction which lias rarely been the portion of a 

 stranger, and, above all, of a simple savant. His purpose was to take part in 

 the meeting at Southampton of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. In one of the sessions of that body. Sir John Herschel, made an 

 address to him, remarkable for the signal and intelligent justice which it ren- 

 dered to his scientific labors. 



Honored in his public, Oersted was happj'- in his private life. His 3'^ounger 

 brother, whom he had taught to read under the roof of the wig-maker of Rud- 

 kjol»ing, ever continued to be his faithful and intimate companion. The latter 

 had himself acquired great celebrity by his labors in philosophy and jurispru- 

 dence, and liad filled the position of president of the Royal Society of Copen- 

 hagen. Only with the death of the elder Ijrother terminated the auspicious 

 habit, contracted in childhood, of daily esclmnging tlieir impressions and ideas. 

 In 1814, Oersted had espoused Mademoiselle Brigitte Ballum, daughter of a 

 Lutheran minister of Kjedby, in the isle of Moen, and found in her an accom- 

 plished companion, whose character, admirabh^ adapted to his own, formed their 

 mutual happiness. Of five daughters and three sons born of this union, only 

 three of the former and two of the latter survived Oersted, to be the consolation 

 of their m(jther. One of his daughters is married to M. Sharling, professor of 

 chemistry in the University of Copenhagen, long know'u for important researches 

 on respiration.* 



Around Oersted, however, there existed a still more extensive family. It \\'as 

 composed, we might say, of the whole city of Copenhagen, where he was as 

 much loved as esteemed, as much esteemed as admired. Of this his fellow- 

 citizens gave him a touching proof in the latter days of his life. The day (7th 

 November, 1850) which marked the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance upon 

 public duties, and Avas what is called in the north his jubilee, was celebrated by 

 a gen(!ral festival in Denmark, with the somewhat quaint forms of Teutonic 

 good-fellowship, but accompanied by a substantial testimonial of gratitude to 

 the man who was regarded as the honor of the whole nation. It had been 

 determined by the friends, the pupils, and indeed tlie simple admirers of the phi- 

 losopher, to make this the occasion of securing to him for the remainder of his 

 life the possession of Fasanenhof, (Pheasant-court,) a delightful summer resi- 

 dence in the garden of Fredericksburg. Tlj.e choice of the dwelling was so 

 much the more delicate and so much the more pleasing to Oersted from its hav- 

 ing been previously the habitation of Ochlenschlager, the friend of his youth. 



Oersted was conducted tiiither on the day of his jubilee. At the same time 

 the King raised him to the rank of councillor of priv-ate conferences, a title 

 never before conferred on a professor of the university, and much higher than 

 that of councillor of ordinary conferences, which Oersted had borne for ten 

 years. His bust, executed by a celebrated statuary, was set up at Fasanenberg 

 in presence of an immense crowd, in which \vere intermingled the most illustrious 

 personages of the kingdom. The rector of the university formally presented 



* His treatise ou respiration was published iu 1843, some mouths before the researches of 

 MM. Andral aud Gavarret on the same subject. {See Comptes Ncndus of the Academy of 

 Sciences, t. xvii, p. 1205.) M. Alexandre Oersted, sou of the celebrated jurist M. Andre 

 Sandoe Oersted, and nephew of the renowned physicist, is at present professor of botany in 

 tho University of Copenhagen. 



