Jacob Berzelius
Berzelius (1779-1848)[9] was the sort and stepson of Lutheran country pastors, from whom he imbibed a dose of theism strongly moderated by late eighteenth-century rationalism and materialism. His education was fully in the spirit of the Gustavian Swedish Enlightenment and was much influenced by French ideas. During his years as a medical student at the University of Uppsala, he found himself "irrevocably gripped" by the love of chemical experimentation. Although to a certain extent an autodidact in chemistry, he learned the French antiphlogistic chemistry of Lavoisier and Fourcroy from his professors, in particular A. G. Ekeberg and Pehr Afzelius. He also consorted with liberal and progressive circles at the university. He graduated from Uppsala in 1804, at which time he became an adjunct (similar to Privatdozent) at the Stockholm School of Surgery—later the Karolinska Mediko-Kirurgiska Institutet—and a physician for the poor. In his meager spare time, he pursued an increasingly successful experimental research program. In January 1807 Berzelius was appointed professor at the school, and he remained in this position for the rest of his life. It was significant that Berzelius spent his career in a professional school, not a university; it required him to remain close to the practical and empirical level, consistent with his innate inclinations. In the 1820s Berzelius fought unsuccessfully for legal equivalence of the Karolinska Institutet with the Swedish universities and urged a more utilitarian and modernist university curriculum. He also fought the phosphorist school, a Swedish version of Naturphilosophie that was influential in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.[10]
Berzelius' first love was physiological chemistry, but he soon discovered stoichiometry and atomic theory. His utter brilliance as a bench
chemist, his theoretical talent, and his extraordinary capacity for work led to a variety of fundamental contributions in both of these areas by 1812, although most were published only in Swedish and so were little known outside of the country. In the summer of 1812 he spent four and a half months in England; in 1818-1819 he spent almost a year in Paris, also visiting Great Britain and Germany. Other trips followed. These foreign travels, and the consequent translations of his books and papers into the major European languages, effectively spread Berzelius' ideas, and by 1820 he was recognized internationally as one of the greatest of living chemists. It is largely to Berzelius (and mainly during these years) that we owe the successful elaboration of atomic theory, as well as the initial stages of development of experimental and theoretical organic chemistry from the base established by Scheele, Lavoisier, Fourcroy, and Gay-Lussac.[11]
Berzelius' reputation was even further enhanced during the 1820s. It was only after 1820 that reliable and full translations of his monumental textbook began to appear, which was first begun in Swedish in 1808. A new edition, edited from 1825 on by Friedrich Wöhler, appeared first in German, the Swedish version following along behind. This edition was the first by Berzelius to treat organic chemistry in detail; the two organic volumes can be viewed as the first full-length organic chemistry textbook in history. Moreover, Berzelius' new position as Secretary of the Swedish Academy of Sciences brought with it an obligation to write an annual report on the progress of chemistry in all subfields throughout the world. The first of these reports, for the calendar year 1820, was quickly translated into German, and a pattern was established that persisted until Berzelius' death. The size of these reports, usually known by their German name Jahresberichte , gradually increased until they were the size of substantial books. In the 1820s, Berzelius was at the top of his form and he knew it. His magisterial judgments of his colleagues' work in the reports were closely followed and highly respected. Berzelius had become the supreme judge and legislator in his science, the one man whose word mattered to all.
An additional factor promoting Berzelius' high standing in Germany was his practice of accepting selected applicants for advanced work in his laboratory. His second guest worker, and the first non-Scandinavian, was C. G. Gmelin in 1814-1815, who later became a professor at Tübingen. Closely following Berzelius' first visit to Germany came the young Eilhard Mitscherlich and the brothers Heinrich and Gustav Rose, all from Berlin and all in 1820-1821. Mitscherlich's visit resulted from the circumstance that Altenstein had offered Berzelius the chair of chemistry at the university, vacated by Klaproth's
death in 1816. Berzelius declined; at least six others were then offered or were considered for the chair, including Stromeyer and Leopold Gmelin. Asked his advice during his visit to Germany in 1819, Berzelius recommended Mitscherlich, whom he had only just befriended. Altenstein agreed, but with the proviso that Mitscherlich should first study with Berzelius in Stockholm. The Rose brothers' trips were also related to this connection, as well as to their friendship with Mitscherlich.
At most, Berzelius accommodated two or three guests in his laboratory, and he often had none at all. Systematic instruction was not given; rather, Berzelius allowed visitors to follow their own research ideas, simply giving advice whenever it was desired. In addition to the four Germans just mentioned, Wöhler came to Stockholm in 1823-1824 and Gustav Magnus, another Berliner, in 1827-1828. By 1830 Justus Liebig could be considered a disciple of Berzelius, even though he had not studied directly with the master; a few years later, Robert Bunsen joined the Berzelians, again in spirit if not in the flesh in Stockholm. German chemistry was thus strongly infused with Berzelian ideas in the 1820s and 1830s, through both direct and indirect channels.
By the late 1830s, however, Berzelius was in a theoretical retreat, most noticeably in the field of organic chemistry, largely because of the experiments and ideas of upstart French chemists such as J. B. Dumas, Auguste Laurent, and Charles Gerhardt. A sense that Berzelian chemistry was passé gradually took root in Germany as well, certainly well before Berzelius' death in 1848. Berzelius himself, who gave up most laboratory work by about 1835, grew increasingly inflexible and cantankerous. His opinions were always freely and openly expressed in his Jahresberichte , and they created much ill will among those whom he attacked—above all, the French chemists, but also his hitherto devoted admirer Liebig. His most loyal disciple and friend, however, was Wöhler.