10 Biography of Berzelius. 
pirical facts which had hitherto borne the name of chemistry, the 
universal law now first developed itself, according to which bod- 
ies enter into chemical combination. 
Berzelius is not, properly speaking, the first discoverer of the 
doctrine of chemical proportions. It generally happens in all sci- 
ences that great laws are not suddenly discovered by one investi- 
gator, but are gradually recognized.* 
* * * * * * 
During the previous century chemists who had occupied them- 
selves with the phenomena of the so-called chemical affinity, 
made several observations which incontrovertibly proved that 
there was a strict uniformity and order in the chemical combina- 
tions of bodies. These men were especially Bergmann in Sweden, 
Kirwan in Dublin, Wenzel in Dresden, and above all, Richter in 
Berlin. The latter two had indeed come to the conclusion, that 
acids and alkaline bodies must combine in definite proportions, 
because in the double decomposition of neutral salts neutral pro- 
ducts are formed. 
y 
to attain to such accurate analyses that the calculated results of 
the decomposition of two neutral salts could correspond with ex- 
riment. 
Lavoisier gave a new direction to the whole science. The at- 
tack upon the phlogistic theory, and the establishment of the an- 
tiphlogistic system, took undivided possession of all thinking 
minds. None had time to occupy themselves with any other 
than the qualitative changes which bodies underwent by their 
mutual decomposition. It was also necessary that Latoinieve 
theory should have gained a complete ascendency before the doc- 
trine of simple chemical proportions could be fully recognized 
and appreciated. 
* Owing to the indistinctness of the MS,, al i i 
want of it, however, does not affect the eae etr ee saa” Sar See aieoet 
