in one of his voyages round the world, and was then professor there of medicine, botany, and chemical pharmacy. Spaurnau died in 1806, and Berzelius, by his inaugural dissertation on galvanism and other papers, had already obtained for himself a sufficient degree of confidence to be appointed his successor. Although this chair embraced a very wide range of subjects, as was frequently the case with Swedish chairs at that time, Berzelius more especially devoted himself to chemistry. It does not appear, indeed, that he gave any lectures on botany, except at the Military College of Carlberg, where he also held an appointment as lecturer. At first he was not more successful in teaching chemistry than his predecessors; but, having received a hint from Dr. Marcet of London that chemical lectures should be illustrated by experiments, he adopted this plan, and likewise abandoned the old practice of reading lectures. He used to express himself very strongly on the inutility of merely reading lectures. Although he first adopted Dr. Marcet's experiments in his class-room, he soon so, far improved upon them that his own became a model for the chemical class-rooms of Europe. During the early period of his residence at Stockholm he practised the profession of medicine, and in 1807 was mainly instrumental in forming the Medical Society of that capital. In 1810 he was made President of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, and in the same year received the appointment of Assessor of the Medical College, and was made a member of the Royal Sanitary Board. At this time, though scarcely more than thirty years of age, he had obtained great reputation as a chemist. He had published a work on animal chemistry, containing many original investigations on the fluids of the animal body, and which was subsequently translated-as, indeed, have been most of his works-into almost every language of Europe. In conjunction with Hisinger he commenced, in 1806, the publication of a periodical work entitled "Afhaudlingar i Fysik, Keim, och Mineralogi," which contained a series of papers by himself, constituting some of the most valuable contributions that had yet been made to analytical chemistry. His labours were regarded as of so much importance by the Royal Academy of Stockholm, that that body decreed him, in 1811, 200 dollars yearly for his chemical researches. In 1812 Berzelius visited England, where he was most cordially received. In that year he communicated, through Dr. Marcet, a valuable paper to the Medico Chirurgical Society of London "On the Composition of the Animal Fluids." In 1818 he visited France and Germany, and in the same year he was appointed Secretary to the Academy of Sciences-a post which he held till his death. In 1831 he was allowed to retire from the active duties of his professorship at the Caroline Institute, but he still held the title of honorary professor. Up to this time he had resided in apartments provided for him at the building occupied by the Academy of Sciences, where, on the same floor, he had his study and laboratory, so that he could with little difficulty pass from his desk to his crucible, and husband his time to the greatest possible extent. He now, however, moved to a house of his own, and in 1835 married a daughter of the town-councillor (Staats-rath) Poppius. In 1837 he received the Great Gold Medal of the Royal Academy of Stockholm, and in 1840 the Diet of Sweden voted him a pension of 2,000 dollars per annum. The scientific societies of Europe and America contended for the honour of inrolling his name amongst their members, and with eighty-eight of these bodies it was connected. Nor was his sovereign, Charles John, behindhand in recognizing the most distinguished of his adopted countrymen. In 1815 Berzelius was made a Knight, and in 1821 a Knight Commander, of the Order of Vasa. In 1829 he received the Grand Cross, and in 1835 was made a Baron. The intelligence of this honour was conveyed to Berzelius by the hand of the King, who wrote himself a letter intimating his deep sense of the merits of the philosopher, and expressing a hope that in this nomination the world would recognize a homage paid to the man who had consecrated his life to those useful researches which had been already recognized by Europe, and which it was the glory of Sweden to be able to appropriate as the patrimony of one of her children. This letter was sent to Berzelius on his wedding-day. How few men of science have married with a patent of nobility on the breakfast table! Sweden had, however, yet one more ovation for her beloved son. In 1843 he had been a quarter of a century Secretary to the Academy, and on this occasion a festival was given in his honour. The Crown-Prince was in the chair, and a portrait of the chemist, painted by Lieut.-Col. Lodemark, was presented to the Academy. Such was the calm, unruffled, successful career of the deceased philosopher. Would that the career of every disciple of science were as happy! He who was thus honoured, merited it-merited it on account of his unwearied industry, his clear and manly intellect, his noble and amiable disposition. The diligence with which he worked both in his study and his laboratory may be judged of by his systematic works and original contributions to science. In addition to the works already mentioned, he published a "Manual of Chemistry," which went through several editions, that of 1841 consisting of ten volumes, and, we believe, another larger edition has since been published. In 1822 he commenced the publication of an Annual Report on the Progress of the Physical Sciences, which has been published every year to the present time. These volumes are the most valuable record of chemical research extant, and contain a full report of the discoveries that have made the period to which they relate so remarkable in the history of chemistry. From 1806 to 1818 he published with Hisinger the periodical before mentioned: and in these volumes are forty-seven papers by Berzelius, all giving an account of original researches by himself. In addition to these he has published works on galvanism, on analytical chemistry, on mineralogy, and a vast number of papers in various Transactions. The name of Berzelius has been too intimately connected with the history of chemistry for the last forty years for us in this slight sketch to give an adequate idea of the influence which his discoveries and generalizations have exerted upon the science. To him it is indebted for the discovery of several new elementary bodies, more especially selenium, morium, and cerium. He first demonstrated the acid nature of silica, and was thus enabled to throw light on the composition of a series of interesting mineral compounds of silica with the metallic oxides. This subsequently led to a whole re-arrangement of mineral bodies, and contributed greatly to the advance of mineralogy. His discovery of selenium led him to investigate its various compounds, and compare them with the sulphurets. These investigations again resulted in his generalizations on the nature of the sulphur salts, and a new classification of the various salts. Subsequently, he investigated the compounds of fluorine, and arrived at some of the most important and valuable results that have yet been obtained by the analytical chemist. Whilst Berzelius was writing the first edition of his "Manual of Chemistry," Dalton had promulgated his idea of the atomic constitution of matter, and Davy had made his great discovery of the metallic bases of the alkalies. These directed his attention to the laws of combination. He was led to institute researches with the most scrupulous care into the com bining proportions of the various elements, giving to each its correct number, and was enabled to obtain results perfectly harmonious with theoretical calculations made on Dalton's laws. He was enabled to extend Dalton's law that one atom of one body unites with one, two, or three, &c. atoms of another body, and showed that two atoms would unite with three and with five. He also pointed out the great fact, that two compounds which contain the same electro-negative body always combine in such proportions that the electro-negative element of one is a multiple by a whole number of the same element of the other. He not only gave to the elementary bodies their combining numbers, but introduced the system of sym. bols, by which chemical labour has been so greatly facilitated. Till the time of Berzelius, organic chemistry was a waste, with here and there an attempt to explain the phenomena of living beings upon chemical principles, and which, from the entire want of experimental foundation, was even worse than useless. The compounds found in plants and animals were not supposed to come within the category to which the laws of combination applied; Berzelius was the first to show that these laws could be applied to animal and vegetable products; and in so doing he opened the way for the discoveries of Mulder, Liebig, Dumas, Boussingault, and others. As a skilful manipulator, Berzelius has had few equals in the history of chemistry. To this we are indebted for the immense variety, number, and success of his analyses. Many of the analytical processes in use at the present time have had their origin with him. The personal appearance of Berzelius was that of a strong, healthy man, with nothing in his habits or manners to impress a stranger with a sense of his powers. A chemist who visited him says, "He has nothing of pretence, reserve, or singularity about him; so that his plainness drew from a fellow traveller of mine, whom he allowed me to introduce to him, the observation, I would never have thought him the great man he is said to be."" His attention to strangers was very great, -especially to those who took an interest in chemistry. With these he would frequently spend hours in his laboratory, explaining his methods of working, and on their departure he left the impression that he was the honoured party. He was an early riser, and gave the first part of the day to his most important work, whatever that might be. He seldom either wrote or experimented in the evening, leaving that part of the day for reading and social relaxation. He had no par ticular times for writing or experimenting; when he had a work to finish he would write sometimes for months without performing an experiment,-but, if anything of importance occurred to him during his writing requiring further investigation, he would at once give up the pen and work perhaps for weeks in his laboratory. His caution was extreme, and though constantly going forward to the new he still clung with tenacity to the old. He was almost the last chemist of eminence that admitted Davy's theory of the elementary nature of chlorine. In the recent advances of organic chemistry, also, and more especially in its applications to the physiology of plants and animals, Berzelius has looked on with the eye of a critic, and withheld to the last his adhesion to some of the advanced positions of this department of the science. His criticisms on his brother chemists were sometimes unnecessarily severe, but in the latter years of his life he has been heard to say that he regretted having expressed himself in a way that could have given unnecessary pain to others. Few men were more beloved in the city of Stockholm than Berzelius.Atheneum. GEORGE STEPHENSON, ESQ. F.R.S. Aug. 12. At Tapton House, near Chesterfield, aged 67, George Stephenson, Esq. F.R.S. Knight of the Order of Leopold. He was born on the 9th June, 1781, of the most humble parentage, at a solitary cot or cottage, on the Tyne, between Wylam and Closehouse, Northumberland, about eight miles west of Newcastle. His father was an engine-tenter at a colliery, and he himself began life as a pit engine-boy at 2d. a day's wages, and afterwards acted as a stoker, and as a breaksman in the employment of Lord Ravensworth and partners, where his mechanical talent first forced itself into notice in the amateur repair and improvement of a condensing pump-engine, where some engineers had failed. He was then promoted to the office of engineman; but we do not know whether it was at this critical period of his history, or even earlier, that he declared to a confidant that, having risen from 2d. a day to the independent sum of 12s. a week, he was now a man for life. At this very time, at all events, the fates began to educate him for his future and still more manly career in life; for something went wrong with the waggon-way, or it never had been anything else but wrong until he tried his apprentice hand upon it, and of course improved it. He was afterwards employed in forming railway planes and engines under ground. Indeed we may say, that from this time forward his peculiar mission was chalked out for him, as, in the midst of defects in the working of coal railways, he happened to be placed in the most favourable circumstances possible for the engagement of his attention and his peculiar talent. The main points in his subsequent career we cannot better describe than in his own words at the opening of the Newcastle and Darlington line of railway in 1844: "Mr. Liddell has told you that in my younger days I worked at an engine in a coal-pit. I had then to work early and late, often rising to my labour at one and two o'clock in the morning. Time rolled on, and I had the happiness to make some improvements in engine-work. The first locomotive that I made was at Killingworth colliery, and with Lord Ravensworth's money. That engine was made thirty-two years ago, and we called it My Lord. I said to my friends that there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, provided the works could be made to stand. * * * I betook myself to mending my neighbours' clocks and watches at nights, after my daily labour was done; and thus I procured the means of educating my son. He became my assistant and companion. He got an appointment as under-viewer; and at nights we worked together at our engineering. I got leave to go from Killingworth to lay down a railway at Hetton, and next to Darlington; and after that I went to Liverpool, to plan a line to Manchester. I there pledged myself to attain a speed of ten miles an hour. I said I had no doubt the locomotive might be made to go much faster, but we had better be moderate at the beginning. The Directors said I was quite right; for if, when they went to Parliament, I talked of going at a greater rate than ten miles an hour, I would put a cross on the concern. It was not an easy task for me to keep the engine down to ten miles an hour; but it must be done, and I did my best. I had to place myself in the most unpleasant of all positions-the witness-box of a Parliamentary Committee. Some one inquired if I was a foreigner? and another hinted that I was mad.* I put up with every *Many of the shareholders themselves had previously manifested symptoms of the same way of thinking: they became alarmed at the "mad" scheme of this "Watt run wild ;" and in order to prevent his no less mad steam-engines from being let loose upon their cherished horsetrot railway project, they got two" eminent engineers" to act as commissioners de rebuff, and went on with my plans, determined not to be put down. Assistance gradually increased-improvements were made every day-and to-day a train which started from London in the morning has brought me in the afternoon to my native soil, and enabled me to take my place in this room, and see around me many faces which I have great pleasure in looking upon." The competitors of Mr. Stephenson for the premium of 5001. offered in 1829 by the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company for the best locomotive engine were Mr. Burstall (or Burstall and Hill), Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericson, and Mr. Hackworth. Burstall's locomotive, the Perseverance, was withdrawn: it was made for locomotion on turnpike roads, on which it had repeatedly run with success previously. It was, indeed, the fruit of much perseverance and more cash, and, in all probability, lost its place in the grand race of renown by the mischance of some mere accident. The other two locomotives, the Novelty and the Sanspareil, broke down, while Mr. Stephenson's Rocket outran the requirements of the directors, averaged 15 miles an hour in speed, won the prize, and ushered in "the greatest mechanical revolution effected since the invention of the steam engine by Watt," and its more immediate fruits.* The subsequent career of Mr. Stephenson was as rapid and as smooth as the railway locomotion which he had done so much to realise. He took the lead, of course, at once in railway engineering, became an extensive locomotive manufacturer at Newcastle and a railway contractor, a great colliery and iron-work The lunatico inquirendo, and report. "eminent engineers" accordingly investigated the subject, and, in " a very able document," proved most clearly that Mr. Stephenson's project was practically and commercially inexpedient! Talent and enterprise, however, prevailed, and the horse plan was abandoned. * Previously to this practical triumph, there had been various projects for locomotive carriages on common roads, and for rack-wheeled carriages on railroads, for it was doubted if a wheeled engine would travel on a smooth plate for want of bite. It appears, however, that a succesful experiment had been made, so far back as 1814, by Mr. Blackett, on the Wylam waggon-way; where it was found that racks, and chains, and legs were all superfluous, the wheels gripping a platerail, and moving onwards independently of any assistance whatever. owner, particularly at Claycross, and, in prosperous and money-making conjunction with Mr. Hudson, in a manner made our great railway system, as they themselves, in a money-making sense, were made by it. In acknowledgment of Mr. Stephenson's claims in connection with railways the Midland Company voted 2,0007. in 1845, to be expended in the presentation of a service of plate and the erection of a statue on the high-level bridge across the Tyne,-the structure recently proposed to be called the Stephenson-bridge in honour of his memory. Mr. Hudson, on whose motion the grant was made, stated that three other companies-the York and North Midland, the Newcastle and Darlington, and the Newcastle and Berwickwould each vote a like sum. The claims of Mr. Stephenson to the original idea of the Davy lamp at one time excited a good deal of discussion; but, whatever be the merits of that question, certainly Davy was a man of more originality of idea, much as Stephenson possessed the happy talent of adapting ideas to useful and to noble purposes. There was a powerful local feeling in favour of Mr. Stephenson's pretensions to the priority of invention. A committee was appointed to investigate the priority of the claims of the inventors of the safety lamp, and a public dinner was given by that committee to Mr. Stephenson, when a purse of a thousand guineas, and a silver tankard, were presented to him. In returning thanks, he announced his intention of devoting the money to the education of his son at the Edinburgh university. rather curious that nearly thirty years afterwards another piece of plate was presented to Dr. Clanny, as "the inventor of the safety lamp." It is "In private life," says a correspondent of the Athenæum, Mr. Stephenson "earned the regard of all who appreciate worth and liberality, not less than ability. His habits were active, his constitution so vigorous that he was tempted occasionally to take undue liberties with it. His affections were warm, his manners frequently playful and vivacious, bearing that stamp of originality indicative of the man. He was fond of the society of ladies; selected them commonly for conversation in mixed parties, where he could follow the bent of his inclinations, and was thrice married." He never hesitated to acknowledge the humbleness of his origin, but, on the contrary, displayed a manly pride in occasional reminiscences and contrasts. It is recorded of him that, in response, on one occasion, to the curiosity of a stranger lady, he said, "Why, madam, they used to call me George Stephenson, I am now called George Stephenson esquire, of Tapton House, near Chesterfield. And further let me say, that I've dined with princes, and peers, and commoners-with persons of all classes, from the humblest to the highest; I've dined off a red herring when seated in a hedge-bottom, and have gone through the meanest drudgery. I've seen mankind in all its phases, and the conclusion I've arrived at is this that if we were all stripped, there's not much difference." With all this plainspoken bluntness, however, he appears to have had a spice of the courtier too, as another anecdote told of him would seem to betray. "I tell you what, my lord duke," he said, on one occasion, while on a visit at the princely seat of the Duke of Devonshire, " your Grace won't find the change, after all, so very great, when you get into Paradise." Above all his own engineering and other titles-and he had even been created a Knight of Leopold of Belgium (for railway services), and an F.R.S.-he is said to have specially esteemed his title of founder and first president of the Society of Mechanical Engi neers. His attention to the mental and temporal improvement of the workmen in his collieries (1000 and upwards), is said to have been unremitting. His death is attributed to his having spent nearly the whole of his time latterly in the impure air of a hot-house, in a praiseworthy, but imprudent, rivalry with the Duke of Devonshire in the cultivation of certain exotics. Whether peer or commoner, Stephenson could not bear that any man should be his superior or equal in anything he undertook. JOHN ILDERTON BURN, Esq. "It is but justice to the memory of this gentleman (whose decease in May last is recorded in p. 102) to bear our testimony to the ability and untiring zeal with which for a series of years he exerted himself to promote the objects of the Labourers' Friend Society. He was early associated with the late Capt. Brenton, R.N. in the establishment of the Children's Friend Society, and only withdrew from that institution when the Committee determined on adopting the measure, which was ultimately so much disapproved of, of sending the children to the colonies. "For several years he acted on the committee of the Labourers' Friend Society, and contributed many valuable papers, under the signature of J. I. B.' to the pages of the monthly publication 'The Labourers' Friend.' "He has left behind him a small work on Labour, Population and Emigration,' in which he has set forth, with considerable clearness and force, his views on those interesting topics. "He was highly respected by those with whom he associated, and, as a steady 'Labourers' Friend,' it is gratifying and instructive to look back on the benevolence and philanthropy which marked his protracted career.”—The Labourers' Friend, July 1848, p. 122. We may add that Mr. Burn acted for some years as honorary solicitor to the Literary Fund Society. He was very fond of art, and at intervals of leisure sketched almost daily from nature with the greatest facility and success. The following is a list of his works :Practical Treatise or Compendium of the Law of Marine Insurance. 1801. 12mo. Treatise or Summary of the Law relative to Stock-Jobbing. 2d edit. 1803. 8vo. Index to the Reports of the Courts of Common Law, previous to the commencement of Fenn's Reports; including W. Blackstone, Burrow, Cooper, Douglas, Lofft, Lord Raymond, Salkeld, Strange, Willis, and Wilson. 1804. 8vo. Attorney's Practice in the Court of King's Bench. 1805. 8vo. REV. D. T. POWELL, B.C.L. June 9. At Tottenham, aged 75, the Rev. David Thomas Powell, B.C.L. This gentleman was the son of Thomas Powell, esq. of the Chestnuts, Tottenham, who was the author of "Edgar and Elfrida, with the Defeat of Hoel Prince of Wales; I Solitario, a Poem ; and others." In early life he was a Lieutenant in the 14th Light Dragoons; and an account of his campaign in Cork, Flanders, and Brabant, in the year 1794, was an autograph manuscript sold among his library. He afterwards became a member of Magda. lene hall, Oxford, at which university he received the degree of B.C.L. June 12, 1805. He was devotedly attached to the study of heraldry and genealogy ; and, though we are not aware of his having appeared as an author on those subjects, he had spent much time in collecting manuscript materials, and in the continuation of the stand |