AND SCHONBEIN 95 



XXI 



Berzelius to Schbnbein 



STOCKHOLM, \Wi March 1847. 



DEAR SIB, 



I thank you sincerely for your courteous 

 letter of February the 12th and for the interesting 

 information which it contains. 



I congratulate you cordially on the honour be- 

 stowed upon you by our king. It gave me great 

 pleasure to hear of it. His Majesty asked me what 

 should now be done with regard to your proposal to 

 communicate to us for a fixed sum the details of the 

 method of manufacturing guncotton, which has now 

 been made public. I suggested to His Majesty that 

 he should grant to the discoverer, whose invention 

 was certain to be profitable to us, some token of royal 

 favour, for instance the honour of knighthood. The 

 king replied that he would consider the matter. A 

 few weeks later a ceremony of investiture was held, 

 at which you, however, were not mentioned, although 

 several foreigners were named, and so I feared that 

 the subject had been overlooked, till I was most 

 agreeably surprised to learn from your letter that 

 His Majesty had not forgotten you. 



At the last meeting of the Academy I submitted 

 your last letter to them. 



