Jacob Berzelius was educated at Upsala, when Professor Afzelius, a nephew of Bergman, filled the chemical chair, and Ekeberg was magister docens in chemistry. Afzelius began his chemical career with considerable éclat, his paper on sulphate of barytes being possessed of very considerable merit. But he is said to have soon lost his health, and to have sunk, in consequence, into listless inactivity.
Andrew Gustavus Ekeberg was born in Stockholm, on the 16th of January, 1767. His father was a captain in the Swedish navy. He was educated at Calmar; and in 1784 went to Upsala, where he devoted himself chiefly to the study of mathematics. He took his degree in 1788, when he wrote a thesis "De Oleis Seminum expressis." In 1789 he went to Berlin; and on his return, in 1790, he gave a specimen of his poetical talents, by publishing a poem entitled "Tal öfver Freden emellan Sverige och Ryssland" (Discourse about the Peace between Sweden and Russia). After this he turned his attention to chemistry; and in 1794 was made chemiæ docens. In this situation he continued till 1813, when he died on the 11th of February. He had been in such bad health for some time before his death, as to be quite unable to discharge the duties of his situation. He published but little, and that little consisted almost entirely of chemical analyses.
His first attempt was on phosphate of lime; then he wrote a paper on the analysis of the topaz, the object of which was to explain Klaproth's method of dissolving hard stony bodies.
He made an analysis of gadolinite, and determined the chemical properties of yttria. During these experiments he discovered the new metal to which he gave the name of tantalum, and which Dr. Wollaston afterwards showed to be the same with the columbium of Mr. Hatchett. He also published an analysis of the automalite, of an ore of titanium, and of the mineral water of Medevi. In this last analysis he was assisted by Berzelius, who was then quite unknown to the chemical world.
Berzelius has been much more industrious than his chemical contemporaries at Upsala. His first publication was a work in two volumes on animal chemistry, chiefly a compilation, with the exception of his experiments on the analysis of blood, which constitute an introduction to the second volume. This book was published in 1806 and 1808. In the year 1806 he and Hisinger began a periodical work, entitled "Afhandlingar i Fysik, Kemi och Mineralogi," of which six volumes in all were published, the last in 1818. In this work there occur forty-seven papers by Berzelius, some of them of great length and importance, which will be noticed afterwards; but by far the greatest part of them consist of mineral analyses. We have the analysis of cerium by Hisinger and Berzelius, together with an account of the chemical characters of the two oxides of cerium. In the fourth volume he gives us a new chemical arrangement of minerals, founded on the supposition that they are all chemical compounds in definite proportions. Mr. Smithson had thrown out the opinion that silica is an acid: which opinion was taken up by Berzelius, who showed, by decisive experiments, that it enters into definite combinations with most of the bases. This happy idea enabled him to show, that most of the stony minerals are definite compounds of silica, with certain earths or metallic oxides. This system has undergone several modifications since he first gave it to the world; and I think it more than doubtful whether his last co but he has taken care to have translations of them inserted into Poggensdorf's Annalen, and the Annales de Chimie et de Physique.
In the Stockholm Memoirs, for 1819, we have his analysis of wavellite, showing that this mineral is a hydrous phosphate of alumina. The same analysis and discovery had been made by Fuchs, who published his results in 1818; but probably Berzelius had not seen the paper; at least he takes no notice of it. We have also in the same volume his analysis of euclase, of silicate of zinc, and his paper on the prussiates.
In the Memoirs for 1820 we have, besides three others, his paper on the mode of analyzing the ores of nickel. In the Memoirs for 1821 we have his paper on the alkaline sulphurets, and his analysis of achmite. The specimen selected for this analysis was probably impure; for two successive analyses of it, made in my laboratory by Captain Lehunt, gave a considerable difference in the proportion of the constituents, and a different formula for the composition than that resulting from the constituents found by Berzelius.
In the Memoirs for 1822 we have his analysis of the mineral waters of Carlsbad. In 1823 he published his experiments on uranium, which were meant as a confirmation and extension of the examination of this substance previously made by Arfvedson. In the same year appeared his experiments on fluoric acid and its combinations, constituting one of the most curious and important of all the numerous additions which he has made to analytical chemistry. In 1824 we have his analysis of phosphate of yttria, a mineral found in Norway; of polymignite, a mineral from the neighbourhood of Christiania, where it occurs in the zircon sienite, and remarkable for the great number of bases which it contains united to titanic acid; namely, zirconia, oxide of iron, lime, oxide of manganese, oxide of cerium, and yttria. We have also his analysis of arseniate of iron, from Brazil and from Cornwall; and of chabasite from Ferro. In this last analysis he mentions chabasites from Scotland, containing soda instead of lime. The only chabasites in Scotland, that I know of, occur in the neighbourhood of Glasgow; and in none of these have I found any soda. But I have found soda instead of lime in chabasites from the north of Ireland, always crystallized in the form to which Hauy has given the name of trirhomboidale. I think, therefore, that the chabasites analyzed by Arfvedson, to which Berzelius refers, must have been from Ireland, and not from Scotland; and I think it may be a question whether this form of crystal, if it should always be found to contain soda instead of lime, ought not to constitute a peculiar species.
In 1826 we have his very elaborate and valuable paper on sulphur salts. In this paper he shows that sulphur is capable of combining with bodies, in the same way as oxygen, and of converting the acidifiable bases into acids, and the alkalifiable bases into alkalies. These sulphur acids and alkalies unite with each other, and form a new class of saline bodies, which may be distinguished by the name of sulphur salts. This subject has been since carried a good deal further by M. H. Rose, who has by means of it thrown much light on some mineral species hitherto quite inexplicable. Thus, what is called nickel glance, is a sulphur salt of nickel. The acid is a compound of sulphur and arsenic, the base a compound of sulphur and nickel. Its composition may be represented thus:
1 atom disulphide of arsenic
1 atom disulphide of nickel.