With Dr. Priestley closes this period of the History of British Chemistry—for Mr. Cavendish, though he had not lost his activity, had abandoned that branch of science, and turned his attention to other pursuits.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE PROGRESS OF PHILOSOPHICAL CHEMISTRY IN SWEDEN.
Though Sweden, partly in consequence of her scanty population, and the consequent limited sale of books in that country, and partly from the propensity of her writers to imitate the French, which has prevented that originality in her poets and historians that is requisite for acquiring much eminence—though Sweden, for these reasons, has never reached a very high rank in literature; yet the case has been very different in science. She has produced men of the very first eminence, and has contributed more than her full share in almost every department of science, and in none has she shone with greater lustre than in the department of Chemistry. Even in the latter part of the seventeenth century, before chemistry had, properly speaking, assumed the rank of a science, we find Hierne in Sweden, whose name deserves to be mentioned with respect. Moreover, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Brandt, Scheffer, and Wallerius, had distinguished themselves by their writings. Cronstedt, about the middle of the eighteenth century, may be said to have laid the foundation of systematic mineralogy upon chemical principles, by the publication of his System of Mineralogy. But Bergman is entitled to the merit of being the first person who prosecuted chemistry in Sweden on truly philosophical principles, and raised it to that high estimation to which its importance justly entitles it.
Torbern Bergman was born at Catherinberg, in West Gothland, on the 20th of March, 1735. His father, Barthold Bergman, was receiver of the revenues of that district, and his mother, Sara Hägg, the daughter of a Gotheborg merchant. A receiver of the revenues was at that time, in Sweden, a post both disagreeable and hazardous. The creatures of a party which had had the ascendancy in one diet, they were exposed to the persecution of the diet next following, in which an opposite party usually had the predominance. This circumstance induced Bergman to advise his son to turn his attention to the professions of law or divinity, which were at that time the most lucrative in Sweden. After having spent the usual time at school, and acquired those branches of learning commonly taught in Sweden, in the public schools and academies to which Bergman was sent, he went to the University of Upsala, in the autumn of 1752, where he was placed under the guidance of a relation, whose province it was to superintend his studies, and direct them to those pursuits that were likely to lead young Bergman to wealth and distinction. Our young student showed at once a decided predilection for mathematics, and those branches of physics which were connected with mathematics, or depended upon them. But these were precisely the branches of study which his relation was anxious to prevent his indulging in. Bergman attempted at once to indulge his own inclination, and to gratify the wishes of his relation. This obliged him to study with a degree of ardour and perseverance which has few examples. His mathematical and physical studies claimed the first share of his attention; and, after having made such progress in them as would alone have been sufficient to occupy the whole time of an ordinary student—to satisfy his relation, Jonas Victorin, who was at that time a magister docens in Upsala, he thought it requisite to study some law books besides, that he might be able to show that he had not neglected his advice, nor abandoned the views which he had held out.
He was in the habit of rising to his studies every morning at four o'clock, and he never went to bed till eleven at night. The first year of his residence at Upsala, he had made himself master of Wolf's Logic, of Wallerius's System of Chemistry, and of twelve books of Euclid's Elements: for he had already studied the first book of that work in the Gymnasium before he went to college. He likewise perused Keil's Lectures on Astronomy, which at that time were considered as the best introduction to physics and astronomy. His relative disapproved of his mathematical and physical studies altogether; but, not being able to put a stop to them, he interdicted the books, and left his young charge merely the choice between law and divinity. Bergman got a small box made, with a drawer, into which he put his mathematical and physical books, and over this box he piled the law books which his relative had urged him to study. At the time of the daily visits of his relative, the mathematical and physical books were carefully locked up in the drawer, and the law books spread upon the table; but no sooner was his presence removed, than the drawer was opened, and the mathematical studies resumed.
This incessant study; this necessity under which he found himself to consult his own inclinations and those of his relative; this double portion of labour, without time for relaxation, exercise, or amusement, proved at last injurious to young Bergman's health. He fell ill, and was obliged to leave the university and return home to his father's house in a state of bad health. There constant and moderate exercise was prescribed him, as the only means of restoring his health. That his time here might not be altogether lost to him, he formed the plan of making his walks subservient to the study of botany and entomology.
At this time Linnæus, after having surmounted obstacles which would have crushed a man of ordinary energy, was in the height of his glory; and was professor of botany and natural history in the University of Upsala. His lectures were attended by crowds of students from every country in Europe: he was enthusiastically admired and adored by his students. This influence on the minds of his pupils was almost unbounded; and at Upsala, every student was a natural historian. Bergman had studied botany before he went to college, and he had acquired a taste for entomology from the lectures of Linnæus himself. Both of these pursuits he continued to follow after his return home to West Gothland; and he made a collection of plants and of insects. Grasses and mosses were the plants to which he turned the most of his attention, and of which he collected the greatest number. But he felt a predilection for the study of insects, which was a field much less explored than the study of plants.
Among the insects which he collected were several not to be found in the Fauna Suecica. Of these he sent specimens to Linnæus at Upsala, who was delighted with the present. All of them were till then unknown as Swedish insects, and several of them were quite new. The following were the insects at this time collected by Bergman, and sent to Upsala, as they were named by Linnæus: