3 b thas % 
Biography of Berzelius. 5 
batteries of Daniell and Grove, he had constructed one of zinc, 
copper, and two liquids, in sucha manner that the zinc was not 
attacked by the liquid in contact with it, while the copper was 
briskly oxydized by the other. If now the oxydation of one of the 
metals were the canse of the electricity, the copper would have 
been positive, and the zinc negative; consequently the poles of 
the pile would be reversed. Before the circuit was closed, the 
copper was violently oxydized and dissolved ; but, when the poles 
were connected, this action ceased immediately, and metallic cop- 
per was precipitated from the liquid upon the copper plate. This 
experiment rendered it obvious to Berzelius that chemical activity 
could not be the cause of the electrical phenomena; for the 
Hisinger, who had a particular partiality for the chemical part of 
mineralogy, and to whom, as a geologist and mineralogist, Swe- 
den owes so much, Berzelius early directed his attention to the 
quantitative analysis of minerals. He candidly admitted in after 
years, that in the first instance, when the law of combination in 
simple definite proportions was not yet established, he did this 
chiefly on Hisinger’s account. But the very first result of an in- 
vestigation of this kind, carried on in conjunction with Hisinger, 
was of the most brilliant kind: it was the discovery of a new 
metal, Cerium, during the year 1803, in the so-called tungsten of 
Bastnas, near Riddarhyttan in Westmanland. 
It must be admitted that the discovery of a new metal is often 
the result of mere chance. But it is not every chemist who is 
tigations and long experience. F'or this reason new element- 
ary bodies are not easily discovered by young chemists, not even 
by those of high talent. The discovery of cerium, which Ber- 
zelius made in his twenty-third year, shows therefore the great 
and rare sagacity which he displayed even in his first inves- 
tigations. 
Klaproth investigated the tungsten of Bastnas simultaneously 
with Berzelius and Hisinger, and declared that the oxyd which 
