ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



NOVEMBER, 1814. 



Article I. 



Biographical Account of Peter Jacob Hjelm, Keeper of the Mint 



at Stockholm.* 



Mil. HJELM was born on the 2d of October, 1746. He was 

 the youngest of four children of Erik Iljelm, Curate of the Con- 

 gregations of Gothcryd and Traheryd, and Rector of Sunnerbo, in 

 the county of Wexio, by a second wife, Cecilia Gistren, daughter 

 of P. Gistrenius, Pastor in Wigeltofta. 



At twelve years of age, after having received a private education 

 at home, he was put into the Rector's Class of the Gymnasium at 

 Wexio. He left this school in 1763, and went to Upsala. Here 

 he followed his studies during the course of eleven years. Mine- 

 ralogy was the branch of science to which he devoted his chief 

 attention ; and in 1771 he gave the first academical specimen of his 

 knowledge, in a dissertation on the Property of Mines and Veins. 

 In 1774 his second thesM appeared, under the inspection of Berg- 

 man, on the White Ores of Iron. The same year he became 

 annuitant in the Royal Mining College ; and two years after he 

 was appointed inspector of the pupils. He became Assayer in the 

 Mint in 1782, and acted as deputy to Assessor Von Engestrb'm fiom 

 that time till 1786. In 1794 he was appointed Keeper of the 

 Mint, and Inspector of the Chemical Laboratory of the Royal 

 College of Mines. These situations he retained till the period of 

 death, which took place at Stockholm, on the 7th of October, 

 1813. 



• Tnn-ilatfd from the Kungl. Vclenskapj Acadcmi n» Uandlinrar for 1813, 

 Pan II. p. 280. 



Vol. IV. \° V. X 



