THE LIFE OF KARL WILHELM SCHEELE xix 



position in life would enable him, to marry the widow of the 

 former owner of his shop. His infirmities, however, increased 

 daily, and it was only on the 19th May 1786, on his death- 

 bed, that he fulfilled his intentions, and two days afterwards he 

 died, leaving all he possessed to his wife. It is therefore pre- 

 posterous, in view of the fact that Scheele evidently anticipated 

 death, to make even the qualified assertion that his death was 

 due to prussic acid poisoning, although his illness may have 

 assumed an acute stage during his researches on that com- 

 pound. But prussic acid as a poison leaves no time for 

 marrying or giving in marriage. 



SCHEELE'S DISCOVERIES AND THEIR PRACTICAL VALUE. 

 Preliminary. 



Attempts have been made to detract from the value of 

 Scheele's discoveries, by denouncing his theories and his 

 erroneous conclusions. But away with theories, and let us 

 get to actual facts. Take for example his Essay on Manganese. 

 During his experiments on that ore, narrated in the essay in 

 question, he inter alia discovered chlorine. Although he termed 

 it dephlogistigated muriatic acid, that in no way altered the 

 substance nor detracted from its practical value nor from the 

 importance of the discovery. But, independent of his peculiar 

 nomenclature, the light in which he regarded it, taking the 

 state of scientific knowledge at the time, was remarkably 

 correct, and perfectly easily understood in the present advanced 

 state of chemical philosophy. All we have to do is to sub- 

 stitute hydrogen for phlogiston and we get dehydrogenised 

 muriatic acid, in one word chlorine ; we then arrive at the 

 additional fact established by Scheele, that muriatic acid is 

 re-formed by the addition of hydrogen to chlorine, and that 



