THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 



PHILOSOPHICAL JOUKNAL. 



Biography of Berzelius. By Professor H. ROSE of Berlin. 



(Concluded from vol. liii., page 221.) 



Berzelius criticised this argument with justice. He de- 

 clared that it seemed to him the same as if a man who is 

 stumbling in the dark, should hesitate to make use of a light, 

 because he would then see more than he required, and be- 

 cause he hoped to find his way without it. 



In order to appreciate fully the great merit of Berzelius, 

 in putting forward his mineral system, it is only necessary to 

 call to mind how great was the chaos in mineralogy before 

 his time, and especially with regard to the classification of 

 the numerous compounds of silica. Although both Dobereiner 

 and Smithson commenced to regard silica as an acid, at about 

 the same time as Berzelius, still it was he who first made an 

 extended application of this view, in the new mineral system 

 which he proposed, by means of which siliceous minerals were 

 included under the head of saline compounds, and the correct 

 conception of their composition first rendered possible. 



The greater number of natural compounds of silica are 

 double salts ; and observing the great diversity among them, 

 Berzelius raised the question, as to whether it was probable 

 that the individual members of such double salts were 

 different stages of saturation. As he had previously assumed 

 only the most simple relations in chemical compounds, he 

 was at first led to infer upon theoretical grounds, that the 



VOL. LIV. NO. CVI1. — JANUARY 1853. A 



