Biography of Berzelius. 23 



time — fortunate if, among the many views which a future 

 extended experience will alter or correct, at least some few 

 may prove to have been rightly conceived. With the pro- 

 foundest conviction of the uncertainty of our theoretical views 

 as well as of their indispensability, I have endeavoured, in 

 presenting them to the reader, not to inspire him with any 

 more firm conviction of their accuracy than they appear to me 

 to merit, and I have therefore always directed his attention to 

 the uncertainty in the selection of modes of explanation. It 

 is a great obstacle to the progress of science to attempt to 

 cause conviction of the truth of that which is uncertain. 

 What is believed is not submitted to any further examina- 

 tion ; and the history of science shews that a deeply-rooted 

 belief in theoretical conceptions has often withstood the most 

 palpable proofs of their inaccuracy. Many of the defenders 

 of Phlogiston required a regular development of the doctrine 

 of oxidation in order to be convinced of its truth, and many 

 distinguished men died believing in Phlogiston." 



An undertaking by no means less gigantic than his " Lehr- 

 buch'' was the publication of the " Jahresberichte," which ap- 

 peared regularly from the year 1820 until the death of Ber- 

 zelius. The last completed volume comprises the discoveries 

 of the year 1846. Berzelius therefore published twenty- 

 seven volumes. 



After Berzelius had been elected, as successor of the botanist 

 Olaf Swartz, to the office of perpetual secretary of the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, he succeeded, among other important 

 changes which he considered necessary in the statutes of the 

 Academy, in carrying into effect the arrangement that annual 

 reports on the progress made in the various physical sciences 

 should be written by members of the Academy, especially the 

 different curators of the Natural History collections of the 

 Academy, and that these report's should be presented at the 

 annual public meeting held upon the 31st of March, the 

 anniversary, and extracts read from them, after which they 

 should appear in print. Members of the Academy undertook 

 to write such annual reports in the departments of Botan}^, 

 Zoology, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Technology. Berze- 

 lius himself undertook the reports on Physics, Inorganic 



