16 LETTERS OF BERZELIUS 



translation of Berzelius' textbook. The publisher could 

 not persuade himself to undertake the work, which, 

 though attended with a considerable outlay, would un- 

 questionably have resulted in pecuniary gain. The 

 consequence was that England had to dispense with a 

 translation of Berzelius' great and at that time unsurpassed 

 work, while Schonbein, foiled in his plan for obtaining 

 the necessary supplies, had to relinquish his scheme of 

 concluding his studies under " the consummate master 

 of chemical science." 



It is no doubt an idle task to imagine what might have 

 happened if matters had fallen out otherwise; but we 

 cannot resist a feeling of the keenest regret that it was 

 not granted to Schonbein to turn his attention to quanti- 

 tative work as well under the influence of the powerful 

 personality of Berzelius, and our disappointment that a 

 publisher's lack of public spirit should have prevented 

 Schonbein from making this pilgrimage, is even more 

 acute than that caused by the events which hindered 

 Liebig from working under this great chemist's direction. 

 Berzelius and Schonbein were so unlike in character that 

 they could not but have been drawn together; and 

 Schonbein would have supplemented Berzelius far more 

 fully than Liebig would have done. Once again we 

 come across the name of Berzelius about this time in a 

 manuscript of Schonbein's. A small diary begun on the 

 21st of January 1828 in Paris, the last entry of which 

 dates from the 10th of March, gives us a clue to the 

 reading to which Schonbein devoted himself at this period. 

 A large part of this book, fifteen pages out of thirty, 

 is occupied by an abstract of Berzelius' paper on indigo. 1 

 It is evident therefore that Schonbein was not then 

 penetrated "by that almost unconquerable aversion to 



1 "Recherches sur 1'Indigo," Annal. de Chimie^ vol. xxxvi. 

 (1827) pp. 310 and 350. 



