i 4 4 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



arsenic. The researches of Berzelius gave results 

 which, as I have said, stood in contradiction to these 

 facts, and vanadium was isolated from its brethren until 

 its true relationships were recognised. It is remark- 

 able that whilst vanadium and phosphorus are so 

 closely allied, a small admixture of the latter body 

 changes altogether the properties of the former. 

 Thus, if phosphoric acid is added to vanadic acid, 

 the splendid crystals of the latter are changed into a 

 dark, pitch-like, non-crystalline mass. This Berzelius 

 was not aware of, although his vanadic acid contained 

 plenty of phosphoric acid. This I know because I 

 happened to find in the laboratory of the Royal 

 Institution, on the occasion of a Friday evening 

 lecture, a specimen in a bottle labelled " Vanadic 

 Acid, from Berzelius." Of this I was permitted to 

 take a few grains, and I found it to contain notable 

 quantities of phosphorus. 



When in Stockholm a few summers ago I made 

 a pilgrimage to the Berzelius Museum, with the 

 contents of which I was greatly interested. Minute 

 tubes by the hundred containing the materials, from 

 the whole range of inorganic, and from a good part of 

 organic chemistry which he had analysed, and many 

 of which compounds he was the first to determine 

 the composition, lay in a drawer. In looking over 

 these precious relics of the work done by that 

 "Viking" of science, I metaphorically bared my head 

 in presence of the Master. 



Berzelius lived and worked in the simplest possible 

 manner. All these wonderful analyses were made, all 

 his books and reports were written, in a two-roomed 

 cottage. The kitchen was his only laboratory ; the 

 cook, Anna, his only assistant. " What is your 

 master?" asked one of her neighbours. " Oh, he 



