138 Proceedings of the Boyal Society 
Eilard Mitscherlich, Lorn 7th January 1794, at Neurede, in 
the Grrand Duchy of Oldenburgh, where his father was a minister 
of the Lutheran Church, was educated at Heidelberg and Paris, 
and studied afterwards at Grottingen. His first objects of study 
were language and ethnology. Later in life he devoted himself 
more to natural science, and especially chemistry. He assisted 
Berzelius at Stockholm for some years. 
In 1821 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Univer- 
sity of Berlin, and attached to the Friedrich Wilhelm Institut. 
His lectures were held in high estimation, and attended by 
numerous classes of students. 
In 1828 he was elected an Honorary Member of this Society, and 
in 1829 was awarded a Medal by the Eoyal Society of London for 
his discourses “ regarding the laws of crystallization and the pro- 
perties of crystals.” 
In 1852 Mitscherlich was elected an Associate Member of the 
Institute of France. His great European reputation is founded on 
his studies on crystallization and some ingenious adaptations of in- 
struments for practical chemistry. His text-book — Lehrhuch der 
Chemie — has gone through a great many editions. 
Mr Mitscherlich died in the present year. 
His experiments and disquisitions tended to establish the rule 
that bodies crystallizing in the same shape (isomorphous) have an 
analogous chemical composition — throwing great light on chemical 
classification, and giving us one of the greatest generalizations 
(after the Atomic theory) which chemistry has gained by the re- 
searches of philosophers. 
When I have laid before you these slender memorials of our de- 
ceased brethren, I may claim to have discharged the real duty of my 
office to-night. If indeed I were worthy to fill the chair in which 
your favour has placed me, — if I had, like some of our distinguished 
Fellows, a knowledge of all science, or even a special acquaintance 
with any one , — it would be my duty to submit to you a survey, or at 
least some outline, of the progress of science among us and among 
our neighbours. But for such a task you know me to be ill qualified. I 
should not venture to speak in the language of science anywhere, and 
least of all in the presence of the men whom I now see around me. 
