1818.] Sir Torbern Bergman. 325 



views, still retained their full force. Accordingly, it is the 

 extent of the views, the soundness of the reasoning, and the 

 excellence of the arrangement, which constitute the merit of 

 Bergman's writings. His powers of invention do not seem to 

 have been great ; he scarcely ever attempted to investigate 

 unknown substances, nor do we owe to him the discovery of a 

 single new simple body, or gas ; while Scheele, though his 

 situation was apparently much less favourable for such investi- 

 gations, brought to light a vast number of new bodies, and made 

 a greater addition to chemical substances than any chemist that 

 either preceded or followed him. But Bergman appears to have 

 been more fully aware of the extent of his science than any of 

 his contemporaries. He had experimented on all the chemical 

 bodies that were known in his time. His dissertations are more 

 complete than any contemporary ones. He first laid down the 

 rules for the application of chemistry to minerals and waters. 

 His essay on elective attractions, though much of it was theo- 

 retical, displays the extent of his views in a very conspicuous 

 manner. It must have contributed very materially to the future 

 progress of the science by pointing out to chemists the facts 

 already known, and the vast number of blanks which required 

 to be filled up before chemistry could be considered as approach- 

 ing to perfection. Though his views respecting affinity were 

 not all sound, and though he reduced its laws to a degree of 

 simplicity which the phenomena do not warrant, yet this does 

 not appear to have been injurious to the advancement of know- 

 ledge, because new facts were to be acquired only by experi- 

 ment ; and this was the mode of investigation universally 

 adopted. Berth ollet, who pointed out the weak parts of the 

 Bergmanian views respecting affinity, has himself advanced a 

 new theory, which he has supported with infinite ingenuity and 

 sagacity. No chemist ever possessed a greater stock of genius ; 

 and he draws upon it in his endeavours to support this theory in 

 the most lavish manner. But Berthollet's theory, notwithstand- 

 ing the abilities of its inventor and the admirable way in which 

 he has contrived to support it and to palliate its defects, is still 

 less conformable to the phenomena than Bergman's ; for if car- 

 ried to its full extent, it would destroy the existence of definite 

 compounds altogether; that is, it would destroy the very 

 existence of the science which it was brought forward to 

 improve ; for if there were no definite compounds, there could 

 be no such science as chemistry at all. The fact seems to be, 

 that the investigation of the ultimate laws of affinity (if the 

 expression be allowable) is beyond our reach, at least in the 

 present state of the science. If we ever are to arrive at any 

 precise facts respecting these laws, it must be by an indirect 

 road ; and, indeed, the atomic theory seems likely to throw 

 some light on the subject. But that theory must be much 

 further advanced than at present, before we can have it in our 



