ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1814. 



Article I. 



Biographical Account of Mr. Scheele. By Thomas Thomson, 



M.D. F.R.S. 



1 HE transcendent merit of Scheele is so universally known to 

 chemists, and the few incidents in a life devoted to one single 

 object have been so many years published by Crell, that I do not 

 consider myself as able to throw much novelty upon the subject. 

 The chief object which I have in view is to lay before the reader a 

 table of the improvements introduced by this unequalled chemist in 

 every branch of the science : for though his publications are far 

 from voluminous, we are indebted to them for the discovery of a 

 greater number of new chemical agents than to any other chemist 

 that ever existed. 



Charles William Scheele was born at Stralsund, the capital of 

 Swedish l'omerania, on the lJ^th December, 1742. His lather was 

 a tradesman in that city. He received the first part of his educa- 

 tion at a private academy, and was afterwards removed to the public 

 school. Early in life he showed a strong inclination to learn 

 pharmacy: he was accordingly bound apprentice for six years to 

 Mr. Bauch, an apothecary at Ciottenbur ;h, and continued with him 

 about two yean after the term of his indenture had expired. It was 

 here that be made himself a proficient in chemistry, assisted by nis 

 own genius and industry, by the processes performed in the laborer 

 lory, and by the facility of making experiments which his situation 

 afforded. 



lie studied with the utmost diligence the works of Ncuman, 

 Lemery, Kunkel, and Stahl. Neuman's Chemistry was his 

 favourite book, and the book to which, in his own opinion, be WSS 

 chiefly indebted for his chemical knowledge. He acquired the 

 habit of experimenting, which is so essential to the chemist, and 



Vol. IV. N° ill. JL 



