BERGMA N. 



4(35 



flergman. tions urged against his favourite candidate, and pre- 

 sented it to the senate, who immediately appointed 

 Bergman to the chemical chair. 



It is singular to remark, to what accidental circum- 

 stances we frequently owe the developement of great 

 talents. Natural history and the physical sciences oc- 

 cupied the attention of Bergman till the 32d year of 

 his age, and but for the resignation of Wallerius, or 

 rather the generous interference of Gustavus, che- 

 mistry would have been deprived of those brilliant 

 discoveries which immortalise his name. The duties 

 of his new office imposed upon him the necessity of 

 devoting his whole time to chemical pursuits ; and he 

 began his career with all the ardour and fearlessness 

 of enthusiasm. The public laboratory at Upsal was 

 incomplete and ill arranged when it came into his 

 hands. At his request, the apartments were repair- 

 ed and enlarged. The laboratory of Aurivillius was 

 purchased. His own cabinet of minerals, along with 

 those of Swab and Wallerius, were arranged in one 

 apartment according to their chemical composition, 

 and in another according to their geographical si- 

 tuation. In another apartment, he placed accurate 

 models of all the articles of chemical apparatus, and 

 of the various instruments used in the arts ; and 

 he completed his collection by the purchase of the 

 best practical works on chemistry and the arts. 



With these admirable auxiliaries, Bergman entered 

 upon his ardent career. Exempted from the preju- 

 dices of theorists, and conducted by the torch of 

 geometry, he began by repeating all the leading ex- 

 periments in chemistry ; he attended carefully to the 

 various minute circumstances which seemed to affect 

 the results ; he marked the legitimate conclusions 

 which his experiments authorised ; and, by thus car- 

 rying into chemistry the principles of the philosophy 

 of Bacon, he was rewarded by a variety of the most 

 brilliant discoveries. 



In examining the carbonic acid, or fixed air, which 

 X)r Black had discovered in the ccinposition of al- 

 kalis and calcareous earths, he found that it was a 

 particular acid, and called it the aerial acid. By 

 distilling sugar with nitrous acid, he obtained from it 

 a v! ry strong acid, differing from all others in its pe- 

 culiar affinities, and which he also found to exist in 

 honey, gum-arabic, in all the saccharine substances, 

 and also in several animal products. He discovered 

 likewise three new acids, viz that of molybdena, 

 that of tungstein, and that of phosphate of iron. 

 The subject of earths next engaged his attention. 

 He made numerous experiments on barytes ; he 

 shewed, that magnesia was not a calcareous sub- 

 stance, as had been generally supposed ; and he pro- 

 ved, that silex differed from all other earths, and par- 

 ticularly from argil. 



In the year 1773, Bergman published a memoir 

 on crystallization, in which he shewed how the va- 

 rious forms of crystals could arise from a simple pri- 

 mitive form, and how this primitive form could be 

 determined by the dissection of the crystal. This 

 admirable theory, of which Bergman has laid the 

 foundation, has been carried to great perfection by 

 the Abbe Hauy, and the Count de Bournon. 



On the analysis of mineral waters he published no 

 fewer than six dissertations, which Macquer ranks 

 Vot. III. f art nr. 



among his most valuable productions. By employ- Bergman. 

 ing new re-agents, he gave a high degree of perfec- ' "' w~' '"' 

 tion to this kind of analysis. Instead of determi- 

 ning the quantities of the ingredients, by endeavour- 

 ing to obtain them singly, he endeavoured to find 

 the weight of one of the ingredients when combined 

 with some well-known substance which he employed 

 for this particular purpose. He examined also the 

 composition of aerated and sulphureous waters ; and 

 he was the first who pointed out the method of form- 

 ing artificial mineral waters. 



His experiments on tartrate of potash and antimony, 

 conducted him to the same results which had been ob- 

 tained by Messrs Macquer and Lasonne ; and in hi 

 analysis of volcanic products, of which numerous and 

 valuable specimens had been brought to Sweden by 

 Messrs Ferber and Troil, he exhibited a particular 

 ingenuity, and detected the various operations of na- 

 ture in the formation of these interesting substances. 

 In the analysis of many simple substances, and of 

 several chemical compounds, he employed the blow- 

 pipe with singular success. The composition of pre- 

 cious stones had hitherto been unknown, but, in the 

 hands of Bergman, they submitted to an accurate 

 analysis. With the simple apparatus of a blowpipe, 

 a piece of charcoal, a small quantity of soda, and a 

 little borax, he found that alumine, mixed with a 

 portion of silex, of lime, and of iron, was the base 

 of emeralds, sapphire, topaz, hyacinth, and ruby ; 

 that the proportional quantity of silex was succes- 

 sively increased in grenat, schorl, tourmaline, zeolite, 

 quartz, and rock crystal ; and that gems were partly 

 connected with siliceous stones, and partly with 

 alum. 



The researches of Bergman into the composition 

 of metals and metallic oxides ; his analysis of nickel 

 and zinc ; his explanation of the fulminating proper- 

 ty of several oxides of gold ; his inquiries respecting 

 crude iron, malleable iron, and steel, in which he 

 shewed, that the various states in which iron appear- 

 ed was owing to the admixture of phosphate of iron, 

 manganese, and many foreign substances, chiefly me- 

 tallic ; his labours in the mines of West Gothland ; 

 his method of forming bricks of a durable nature ; 

 his investigations respecting the combination of mer- 

 cury with muriatic acid ; respecting the analysis of 

 calculi and asbestos ; and respecting sulphuretted an- 

 timonial preparations, all these various labours can 

 only be mentioned in this short sketch of his life. 



The subject of elective attraction, which Geof- 

 froy had begun in 1718, was resumed by Bergman 

 with wonderful success. In order to complete this 

 laborious undertaking, he calculated that no fewer 

 than 30,000 experiments would be necessary ; but 

 finding that his health was unfit for such enormous 

 labour, he arranged the materials which he had col- 

 lected, and published very accurate and extensive 

 tables of elective attractions. These tables were the 

 first that contained the laws of affinities as they are 

 observed in operating by the dry way. He has re- 

 presented, by formula?, all the chemical operations, 

 the results of which form the basis of the table ; and 

 he has exhibited, at one view, the substances upon 

 which he operated, the method employed, and the 

 result of the operation. In his work on elective 

 3n 



