1824.] Biographical Account of J. G. Gahn. 9 



government from its remotest history down to the latest periods, 

 it will at once be conceived that to Gahn were committed the 

 most valuable and the most ancient privileges in Sweden. It 

 was in the districts just mentioned, that the primitive race of 

 men were found, whom neither the steel of their enemies had 

 subdued, nor their gold had corrupted, and who sallying forth 

 under Gustavus the Great, freed their country from the slavery 

 of a foreign yoke; immediately after which, they returned unal- 

 tered by cities or by courts to their former laborious occupations. 

 Services of this nature, which they more than once rendered to 

 Sweden, joined to the great national importance of their occupa- 

 tions, caused numerous privileges to be conferred on the body of 

 miners in general ; and, once conferred on characters so deter- 

 mined, it was dangerous to talk, of infringing on them. Such 

 was the district with which Gahn in the Diet was more imme- 

 diately connected, and such were the privileges which fell to 

 him more especially to defend. And they found a champion 

 worthy of the trust; for there is not at this moment one trait in 

 Gahn's history which more endears him to his fellow country- 

 men, than the ardour and the disinterestedness with which he 

 defended as a Burgher their public rights. 



For the last twenty-five years of his life, his country made 

 frequent calls upon his information as a man of science, and 

 upon his experience as a man of business. In 1795 he was 

 chosen a member of the Committee for directing the general 

 Affairs of the Kingdom (Rikets Allmanna arenders beredning) ; 

 in 1810, he was made one of the Committee for the general 

 Maintenance of the Poor; in 1812, he was elected an Active 

 Associate of the Royal Academy for Agriculture ; and in 1816, 

 he became a member of the Committee for organizing the Plan 

 for a Mining Institute. In 1818, he was chosen of the Com- 

 mittee of the Mint ; from this situation, however, he was shortly 

 after, at his own request, permitted to withdraw. 



In short, genius and talent seem never to have been better 

 bestowed than on Gahn ; for through the whole course of his 

 long life, it is difficult to say, whether they procured to him 

 greater celebrity, or to his country greater advantage ; whether 

 he was more remarkable for the comprehension and scope of his 

 views, or for the industry and research of his investigations. 

 When the Board of Iron Founderies at Fahlun instituted a series 

 of trials with respect to the melting of cast iron in small fur- 

 naces, the experimenters were deeply indebted to the advice and 

 instruction of Gahn. And when, more recently, another set of 

 experiments relative to hydraulic machinery were prosecuted, the 

 same aid was freely administered by the same hand. Thus we 

 find Gahn distinguished as a philosopher in exploring and 

 unveiling the relations of nature; we find him as a mechanical 

 genius, improving and perfecting the blowpipe and the balance 



