M, Fischer's Memoir of the Life of Klaproth . 323 
of obtaining his object,— or the unceasing labour, and the incom- 
parable exactness with which he developed it,— -or, lastly, the 
pure scientific feeling under which he acted, and which was re- 
moved at the utmost possible distance from every selfish, every 
avaricious, and every contentious purpose. 
He very properly began in 1795 to collect his works, which 
were dispersed among so many periodical publications, and to 
edite them under the title of Contributions to the Chemical Know - 
ledge of Mineral Bodies. Of this work, which must always be 
a classical production in chemical literature, six volumes had. 
appeared by the year 1815. It contains, in no fewer than 207 
treatises, the most valuable part of all that Klaproth had done 
for Chemistry and Mineralogy ; and it is to be wished that the 
profits may so turn out as to lead to the collection of a few 
essays which still remain dispersed, into a seventh volume, and 
to the furnishing of the whole with a good index ; an underta- 
king which, to a young chemist, anxious to perfect his know- 
ledge, would be as full of instruction as of pleasure. 
Beside Klaproth's own printed works, the interest which he 
took in several important labours of others, ought not to pass 
unnoticed. He superintended a new edition of Greffs Manual 
of Chemistry, with respect to which, however, he did not seek 
to earn so much merit by what he added, as by what he took 
away and corrected. But the part which he took in the Chemi- 
cal Vocabulary, which was edited under his own name, and that 
of Wolff, was of great importance. For although the composi- 
tion of every particular article was the labour of the learned 
Professor Wolff, yet Klaproth took such an active interest in 
the work, that he read through every important article before 
it was printed, and assisted the editor, on all occasions, with the 
treasures of his experience and knowledge. In the German 
translation, too, of Berthollet on Affinity and on Chemical 
Statics, the author of the present memoir was much indebted 
to the revisal of Klaproth. 
If the author of this memoir were to collect the merit of 
Klaproth as a chemist into one great feature, he would place it 
not so much in the discovery of new metals and earths, as in the 
invention of more exact and more perfect methods of analysis, 
than were known before his time. The former kind of merit k 
