1822.] 
trade of an apothecary. Five years 
which he was forced to spend as anap- 
prentice, and two which he passed as 
an assistant in the public laboratory at 
Quedlinburg, do not seem to have fur- 
nished the best education for a great 
chemist ; for they placed him out of the 
reach of scientific study, and, instead of 
that, secured nothing for him but a cer- 
tain mechanical adroitness in the most 
common pharmaceutical preparations. 
He always regarded, as the epoch of 
his scientific instruction, the time when 
he first entered the public laboratory at 
Hanoyer, in which he spent two years. 
It was there that he first met with some 
chemical works of merit, especially 
those of Spielman and Cartheuser, in 
which a higher scientific spirit already 
breathed. ‘The love of science, thus 
awakened, naturally aimed at a more 
complete development. In 1768 he 
was placed as assistant in the labora- 
tory of Wendland, at Berlin. Herehe 
employed all the leisure which a con- 
scientious discharge of the duties of his 
station left him, in completing his own 
scientific education; and he applied 
himself with great zeal to the study of 
the Greek and Latin languages. In 
1770, he was permitted, by fortunate 
circumstances, to go to Dantzig, as 
assistant in the publiclaboratory. But 
in March of the following year, he re- 
turned to Berlin, as assistantto Valen- 
tin Rose, at that time one of the most 
distinguished chemists of his day. 
But this connexion did not continue 
long, for Rose died in 1771. 
After a most honourable and long- 
continued trial, he became superin- 
tendant of the establishment of Rose, in 
which a greater number of distin- 
guished chemists were formed than in 
any other, since, beside the elder Rose 
and Klaproth, this establishment af- 
forded a larger or smaller portion of 
their education to Hermbstadt, Gehlen, 
Valentin, the younger Rose, and 
several other excellent pharmacopo- 
lists. Klaproth not only superintended 
this office for nine years, with the most 
exemplary fidelity and conscientious- 
ness; but, what particularly displayed 
his honourable character as a man, he 
himself undertook the education of the 
two sons of Rose, as asecond father to 
them. 
In the year 1780, when Klaproth 
was thirty-seven years of age, he went 
through his examination for the oflice 
of apothecary, with distinguished ap- 
plause. His Thesis, ““ On Phosphorus 
Biographical Account of Martin Henry Klaproth. 
229 
and distilled Waters,” was printed in 
the Berlin Miscellanies for 1782. 
Soon after this, Klaproth bought 
the Flemish laboratory in Spandau- 
street; and he continued in possession 
of this laboratory till the year 1800, 
when he purchased the room of the 
academical chemists, in which he was 
enabled, at the expense of the aca- 
demy, to furnish a better and more 
spacious apartment for his labours, for 
his extremely valuable mineralogical 
and chemical collection, and for his 
lectures. 
As soonas Klaproth had brought the 
first arrangement of his office to perfec- 
tion, there appeared, in ‘‘ Crell’s Che- 
mical Annals,”—in the “ Writings of 
the Society for the Promotion of 
Natural Knowledge,”-—in ‘“ Selle’s 
Contributions to the Science of Nature 
and of Medicine,”—in ‘‘ Kohler’s 
Journal,” and in other periodical works, 
a multitude of essays by him, which 
drew the attention of all chemists, and 
gained for him the rank of the first 
analytical chemist in Europe. Of 
these labours, we may mention only an 
“Essay on Copal,” “On the Elastic 
Stone,” “ Onthe Pearl Salt of Proust,” 
“On the Green Lead-Spar of Tschop- 
pau,” “On the best Method of pre- 
paring Ammonia,” “‘ On the Carbonate 
of Barytes,” ‘On the Wolfram of 
Cornwall,” “On the Wood Tin-Ore,” 
“On the Violet Schorl,” ‘On the 
celebrated Aerial Gold,” ‘On Apatite,” 
&e. &e. 
In 1788, he was adopted as an ordi- 
nary member of the physical class of 
the Royal Academy of Sciences at 
Paris. From this time, not only all the 
volumes of the French academical 
memoirs, but several daily papers, 
contained a multitude of new discove- 
ries by this accomplished chemist. 
Amidst all these labours, it is difficult to 
say, whether we should most admire 
the fortunate genius, which inall cases 
readily and easily divined the point 
where any thing of importance lay 
concealed, or the acuteness which 
enabled him to find out the best 
means of obtaining his object,—or the 
unceasing labour, and the incompara- 
ble exactness with which he developed 
it,—or, lastly, the pure scientific feel- 
ing under which he acted, and which 
was removed at the utmost possible 
distance from every selfish, every ava- 
ricious, and every contentious purpose. 
In 1795 he began to collect his 
works, which were dispersed among 
so 
