June 23, 1923] 
NATURE 
853 

Berzelius died in 1848, and the torch of chemistry 
has been handed on by worthy successors such as Lars 
Fredrik Nilson (1840-1899) and Per Theodor Cleve 
(1840-1905), while to-day science in Sweden has no 
more illustrious name than that of Svante Arrhenius, 
the originater of the theory of electrolytic dissociation 
and the director of the Nobel Institute of Physics, 
who began his career in the old university where 
Bergmann had taught. 
While chemistry in particular has flourished in Sweden, 
other sciences have by no means been neglected. In 
all that appertains to the sea and fisheries, to agricul- 
ture and forestry, and to exploration, much valuable 
work has been done. One of the meetings to be held 
at Gothenburg this summer is the Congress of Scandi- 
navian Naturalists. In astronomy, in physics, and 
in geology, Sweden has also played her part. Uppsala 
has possessed an observatory since about 1730, and 
during the nineteenth century this was directed by 
Gustav Svanberg (1801-1882), Herman Schultz (1823- 
1890), known for his micrometrical measurements of 
nebule, and by Nils Christophr Duner (1839-1914), 
who devoted himself to a study of stellar spectra and 
in 1892 received the Rumford Medal of the Royal 
Society. Another well-known astronomer was Hugo 
Gylden (1841-1896), for more than twenty years head 
of the Stockholm observatory, where Backlund was 
his pupil. Anders Jonas Angstrém (1814-1874) began 
his career in the Swedish observatories, but his great 
work on the solar spectrum was done while he held 
the chair of physics at Uppsala to which he was 
appointed after the death of Adolph Svanberg (1806- 
1857). Angstrém’s successors, Tobias Thalen (1827- 
1905) and Knut Johan Angstrém (1857-1910), were 
also distinguished workers in spectroscopy, while it 
was said that Thalen’s magnetometer was in use in 
every iron mine of importance in Sweden. 
Geological studies in Sweden may be said to have 
been begun with the writings of Urban Hiarne (1641- 
1724), physician to the king, who in 1694 published 
his views on the history of the earth. Some of the 
earliest geological maps of Sweden were prepared by 
Gustav Hermelin (1744-1820) a student of Uppsala 
and an officer in the Swedish mining service. Geo- 
_ logical surveys of Norway and Sweden were inaugur- 
ated in 1858. Among the directors have been Otto 
Torell (i828-1900) and Alfred Térnebohm (1838- 
1911). Ina country possessing rich mineral deposits, 
the work of these geologists has been of the greatest 
value. 
Apart from agriculture, which still employs about 
half the population of 6,000,000, the main industries 
of Sweden depend on the iron mines, the magnificent 
forests, and the ample water power. The manufacture 
of wood pulp and the timber trade have grown 
enormously. At one time Sweden was the principal 
iron-producing country in the world. Though to-day 
her position in this respect is much more modest, the 
quality of her iron is still unrivalled. The steam 
engine was introduced into Sweden by the Swedish 
man of letters, Abraham Edelcrantz (1754-1821), 
while the first marine engine was made by Samuel 
Owen, whose bust has been placed in the Gothenburg 
Exhibition together with a model of the engine he 
built. In the field of shipbuilding Sweden has done 
much pioneering work, and at one time no writings 
on naval architecture were more highly esteemed in 
England than those of Chapman (1721-1808), who 
was a native of Gothenburg. The famous engineer 
and naval architect, John Ericsson, was a Swede, and 
began work on the Géta Canal, which had been first 
surveyed by Swedenborg, but was built to the plans 
of the British engineer Telford. Ericsson was in 
England from 1826 to 1839; he then emigrated to the 
United States and it was there that he produced the 
Monitor which during the civil war saved the North. 
After his death in 1889, Ericsson’s body was sent to 
Sweden in an American warship, and it now lies at 
Filipstad in the beautiful Wermland district. 
Many Swedish civil and mechanical engineers have 
gained a world wide-reputation. Nordenfelt, who 
died in 1920, was one of the pioneers of the submarine, 
Goransson, who died in 1900, assisted in perfecting 
Bessemer’s great invention, while Fredrik Kjellin 
(1872-1910) was a pioneer of the electric steel industry. 
Of the three brothers Nobel, it was Alfred Bernhard 
Nobel (1833-1896) who first produced dynamite and 
afterwards left more than a million sterling to found 
the Nobel prizes. The list could be lengthened consider- 
ably, but few names have stood higher than that of 
Gustav de Laval (1845-1913), whose cream separators 
are to be found in use all over the world; he is also 
widely known as the inventor of the de Laval steam 
turbine, the first patent for which was taken out in 
1884, the same year that the Parsons turbine was 
patented. De Laval, it may be added, was a student 
and graduate of Uppsala University, and was thus 
one of the makers of modern Sweden who laid the 
foundation of their knowledge in the ancient university 
where Swedish science had its birth. 
Current Topics and Events. 
AN important paper by Prof. Georges Dreyer, of 
Oxford, in the last number of the British- Journal 
of Experimental Pathology has been the subject of 
widespread comment, as, apparently, it is likely to 
inaugurate a new era in the specific treatment of 
infective disease, and particularly of tuberculosis. 
It is a matter of common knowledge that the 
“tuberculins ’’ hitherto employed have not been 
completely successful against the highly resistant 
bacillus of tuberculosis. Dreyer’s main thesis—and 
it is supported by a mass of accurate experimental 
evidence—is that the relative failure of certain 
NO. 2799, VOL. 111] 
vaccine preparations is due to the presence in some 
bacteria of various lipoidal substances which, cover- 
ing or incorporated with the protoplasm of the 
microbe, offer a considerable protection to the latter, 
so that it is able to escape the destructive bactericidal 
and other antibodies which are evoked by the host 
in response to the infection. By a process consisting 
essentially of the extraction of the lipoids, the 
“defatted ’’ bacteria have been found not only to 
preserve their antigenic properties, but also the 
latter are actually enhanced when compared side 
by side with antigens which still preserve their 
