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112 Biography of Berzelius. 
Berzelius travelled the path of Science together with other 
distinguished men, who likewise advanced chemistry with giant 
st This was a time such as no other science has yet known, 
for no other has grown up from its childhood to a certain maturity 
in so incredibly short a space of time. 
Berzelius was born almost in the same year as H. Davy and 
Gay-Lussac. However similar were the labors of these three 
men in science, they were in other respects very different. 
Davy’s brilliant discoveries, especially that of the metallic na- 
ture of the alkalies, gave chemistry an extraordinary impulse, and 
caused great enthusiasm in its pursuit. He achieved great things 
by his discoveries, the further following out of which, however, 
he left to others. He died in the prime of life; but in a certain 
degree his intellectual blossom was already past. Born poor, he 
have achieved so muc . 
Gay-Lussac commenced his scientific career with the discovery 
ume,—a discovery, however, of which he did not at first make 
the many applications that were possible. But the most bril- 
liant researches of Gay-Lussac are indisputably,—besides those 
published in common with Thénard on physico-chemical subjects, 
—the two sets of researches upon cyanogen and iodine. Eve 
independently of the extremely importance influence which these 
researches exercised upon the whole range of chemistry, they 
may be regarded as models of investigation, both as regards the 
total results, the strict consistency of the reasoning, and the ad- 
mirable description. As often as they are read, even at the pres- 
ent day, they will be regarded with astonishment. 
ut when, soon after the appearance of his paper upon cyano- 
gen, Gay-Lussac undertook, in conjunction with Arago, the edi- 
torship of the “ Annales de Chimie et de Physique,” his scientific 
activity became gradually less. The first volumes of this Jour- 
nal certainly contain several small papers and remarks which call 
to mind the author of those on Iodine and Cyanogen; but after a 
few years he ceased to write almost altogether ; and it is perhaps 
more to be sincerely regretted than in the case of Davy, that Gay- 
Lussac, who died but a short time since, and after Berzelius, 
should already in the vigor of life have renounced his active 
* . 
scientific career, which seemed to promise so much. 
