AND SCHONBEIN 105 



a place here, although it is unfinished. Whether it was 

 ever completed, or ever printed, I am unable to say, as I 

 have found nothing in any of the available journals with 

 which Schonbein usually kept up an active correspondence : 

 Allgemeine Zeitung, Morgenblatt fur die geUldeten Stande, 

 and the Easier Zeitung, which, as a local paper, must also 

 be taken into account. An obituary notice in No. 237 

 of the Allgemeine Zeitung of 24th August 1848 is plainly 

 not by Schonbein. 



So far as I can read this hardly legible writing, the last 

 words of Schonbein on Berzelius are as follows : 



"Jakob Berzelius is dead; his loss will be deeply 

 mourned wherever science is cherished and esteemed ; 

 for not only are we entitled to rank him with the most 

 eminent natural philosophers of the age, but he was 

 beyond doubt the first of all chemists that ever lived. 

 The lofty position which chemistry occupies to-day is due 

 to his investigations, which are as numerous and as 

 accurate as they are full of genius ; and without 

 exaggeration we may say that he has done more for the 

 advancement of science than all other chemists together. 

 The greatest and most brilliant service which he rendered 

 consists in establishing the law of the definite proportions 

 in which the elements combine with one another, a work 

 the enormous extent and significance of which only an 

 expert can appreciate. 



" Like all truly great scholars he was devoid of petty 

 conceit and jealousy, and with an impartiality as great as 

 his knoAvledge he gave due recognition to the labour of 

 others, so that the whole chemical world gladly accepted 

 his verdict." 



With this estimate of Berzelius by Schonbein I will 

 conclude. The opinions which we have heard the two 

 men express in their letters reflect as much honour on the 

 one as on the other. 



