Me Biography of Berzelius. 
expels equal quantities of phlogiston from the different metals ; 
or to express the same in the language of the antiphlogistic sys- 
tem, that when a certain quantity of any acid combines with 
different metallic oxyds, forming neutral salts, the oxyds must 
contain an equal and invariable quantity of oxygen. 
But in order to be able to apply this law of Bergmann with 
perfect certainty, unassailable proofs of its perfect accuracy were 
necessary. Those which Richter had given could not be re- 
garded as at all admissible. Berzelius now compared his analy- 
ses of potash, soda, and lime with Bucholz’s analysis of oxyd 
of silver, and that made by my father of oxyd of mercury; and 
he found in fact that the quantity of these bases which sat- 
urate the same quantity of hydrochloric acid, forming a neutral 
salt, contained, with very slight deviations, the same quantity of 
oxygen. But when he came to examine other metallic oxyds 
and combinations with muriatic acids, the results obtained were 
so much at variance (perhaps on account of many erroneous 
myself justified in mentioning the following cireum- 
stance, although somewhat of a personal character. Berzelius 
