ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



JULY, 1824. 



Article I. 



Biographical Account of Assessor John Gottlieb Gahn. 



Among the many illustrious names which have adorned the 

 annals of chemistry during the last fifty years, there are few 

 entitled to a more distinguished place than that of Gahn. Born 

 in the most favoured district of a country which was in the ful- 

 lest enjoyment of its freedom, — the pupil of Bergmann, and the 

 friend of Scheele, he is alike distinguished as a patriotic citizen, 

 and as a profound philosopher. Identified with the fame of 

 these two celebrated men will Gahn's descend to posterity, for 

 it was in their publications that his greatest discoveries made 

 their first appearance ; and in the hearts of all his countrymen 

 will his memory live embalmed, by the recollection of his general 

 philanthropy and public virtue. Nor was he less amiable in 

 private life ; but, with the generosity of a liberal mind, he freely 

 and frankly communicated on all occasions the boundless store 

 of information which he had acquired, or the practical applica- 

 tion of the discoveries which he had made. By his improve- 

 ments in the arts of mining and metallurgy, he increased the 

 wealth, not less than the glory of his country ; and at this day, 

 there is no name more admired, and at the same time more 

 beloved, in Sweden, than that of John Gottlieb Gahn. 



On the 17th of August, 1745, at the Woxna Iron Works, in 

 South Helsingland, was born J. G. Gahn, son of Hanns Jacob 

 Gahn, Treasurer to the Government of Stora Kopporberg. In 

 his 15th year he had completed his preparatory education at the 

 Gymnasium of Westeras, and early in the year 1760, he com- 

 menced his scientific studies in the University of Upsala. His 

 mind seems already, even at this period, to have received the 

 bias towards those pursuits which continued the study of his 

 manhood and of his age, and which will long preserve his 

 memory from decay. The wide fields of mineralogy and che- 

 mistry, of mathematics and mechanical philosophy, hero 



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