18 LETTEES OF BEEZELIUS 



teristic of Schb'nbein that the report in the transactions 

 is not written by himself, but by his countryman and 

 friend Fischer, 1 professor of philosophy, in a paper 

 occupying twenty-six pages, entitled : " Account of Pro- 

 fessor Schonbein's experiments on the behaviour of iron 

 towards oxygen." 2 



It is these experiments which form the subject of 

 Schonbein's first letter to Berzelius, dated 22nd of April 

 1836. The letter is as follows : 



Schbnbein to Berzelius 



BALE, 22nd April 1836. 



DEAR SIR, 



It is only your well-known kindness, and a 

 hope which I entertain that what I have to com- 

 municate may not be wholly without interest to you, 

 which encourage me, though a perfect stranger, to 

 trouble you with a letter from so great a distance. 



For several months I have been occupied with the 

 more accurate determination of the behaviour of 

 certain metals, particularly iron, under various con- 

 ditions, in the presence of nitric acid. My work has 



p. 444 ; [vol. xxxix. p. 137] (1836). Bibl univ., vol. iii. p. 

 387 ; vol. v. p. 177 (1836). Phil. Mag., vol. ix. pp. 53 and [259] 

 (1836). The passages in brackets were printed after the Bale 

 Keport. 



1 Friedrich Fischer, professor of philosophy at Bale from 

 1832 to 1853, born in 1801 at Honau, Black Forest, in 

 Wurtemberg, and died in 1853 at Winnenden in the Neckar 

 district. 



2 Easier Bericht, vol. i., part 2 (1836), p. 72. 



