Jns Jacob Berzelius

1 Biography

Berzelius redirects here. For other uses, see Berzelius

(disambiguation).

Born at Vversunda in stergtland in Sweden, Berzelius

lost both his parents at an early age. Relatives in
Linkping took care of him, and there he attended the
school today known as Katedralskolan. He then enrolled
at Uppsala University where he learned the profession of
medical doctor from 1796 to 1801; Anders Gustaf Ekeberg, the discoverer of tantalum, taught him chemistry.
He worked as an apprentice in a pharmacy and with a
physician in the Medevi mineral springs. During this time
he conducted analysis of the spring water. For his medical studies he examined the inuence of galvanic current on several diseases and graduated as M.D. in 1802.
He worked as physician near Stockholm until the mineowner Wilhelm Hisinger discovered his analytical abilities and provided him with a laboratory. Between 1808
and 1836, Berzelius worked together with Anna Sundstrm, who acted as his assistant.[3]

Baron Jns Jacob Berzelius (Swedish: [jns jkb

bselis]; 20 August 1779 7 August 1848), named by
himself and contemporary society as Jacob Berzelius,
was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along
with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier,
to be one of the founders of modern chemistry.[1]
Berzelius began his career as a physician but his researches in physical chemistry were of lasting signicance in the development of the subject. He is especially
noted for his determination of atomic weights; his experiments led to a more complete depiction of the principles
of stoichiometry, or the eld of chemical combining proportions. In 1803 Berzelius demonstrated the power of an
electrochemical cell to decompose chemicals into pairs of
electrically opposite constituents.
Berzeliuss work with atomic weights and his theory of
electrochemical dualism led to his development of a modern system of chemical formula notation that could portray the composition of any compound both qualitatively
(by showing its electrochemically opposing ingredients)
and quantitatively (by showing the proportions in which
the ingredients were united). His system abbreviated the
Latin names of the elements with one or two letters and
applied superscripts to designate the number of atoms of
each element present in both the acidic and basic ingredients.

In 1807 Berzelius was appointed professor in chemistry

and pharmacy at the Karolinska Institute.
In 1808, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences. At this time, the Academy
had been stagnating for several years, since the era of
romanticism in Sweden had led to less interest in the sciences. In 1818, Berzelius was elected the Academys secretary, and held the post until 1848. During Berzelius
tenure, he is credited with revitalising the Academy and
bringing it into a second golden era (the rst being the astronomer Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin's period as secretary
from 1749 to 1783).[4] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences in 1822.[5] In 1827 he became correspondent
of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, and in 1830 associate member.[6] In 1837, he was elected a member of
the Swedish Academy, on chair number 5.

Berzelius himself discovered and isolated several new

elements, including cerium (1803) and thorium (1828).
Berzeliuss interest in mineralogy also fostered his analysis and preparation of new compounds of these and other
elements. He was a strict empiricist and insisted that
any new theory be consistent with the sum of chemical
knowledge. He developed classical analytical techniques,
and investigated isomerism and catalysis, phenomena that
owe their names to him. He became a member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1808 and served 2 Achievements
from 1818 as its principal functionary, the perpetual secretary. He is known in Sweden as the Father of Swedish
Chemistry. Berzelius Day is celebrated on 20 August in 2.1 Law of denite proportions
honour of him.[2]
Not long after arriving to Stockholm he wrote a chemistry textbook for his medical students, from which point
a long and fruitful career in chemistry began. In 1813
he published an essay on the proportions of elements in
compounds. The essay commenced with a general description, introduced his new symbolism, examined all
1

2 ACHIEVEMENTS

2.4 New chemical terms

Berzelius is also credited with originating the chemical
terms "catalysis, "polymer, "isomer, and "allotrope,
although his original denitions dier dramatically from
modern usage. As an example, he coined the term
polymer in 1833 to describe organic compounds which
shared identical empirical formulas but which diered
in overall molecular weight, the larger of the compounds being described as polymers of the smallest.
At this time the concept of chemical structure had not
yet been developed so that he considered only the numbers of atoms of each element, and viewed for example glucose (C6 H12 O6 ) as a polymer of formaldehyde
(CH2 O) contrary to modern usage. Berzelius also developed electrochemical dualism.

2.5 Biology

Daguerreotype of Berzelius.

the known elements, included a table of specic weights

and nished with a selection of compounds written in his
new formalisation.[7] In 1818 he compiled a table of relative atomic weights, where oxygen was set to 100, and
which included all of the elements known at the time.[8]
This work provided evidence in favour of the atomic theory proposed by John Dalton: that inorganic chemical
compounds are composed of atoms combined in whole
number amounts. In discovering that atomic weights are
not integer multiples of the weight of hydrogen, Berzelius
also disproved Prouts hypothesis that elements are built
up from atoms of hydrogen.

2.2

Chemical notation

In order to aid his experiments, he developed a system

of chemical notation in which the elements were given
simple written labelssuch as O for oxygen, or Fe for
ironwith proportions noted by numbers. This is the
same system used today, the only dierence being that
instead of the subscript number used today (e.g., H2 O),
Berzelius used a superscript (H2 O).[9]

2.3

Discovery of elements

Berzelius is credited with identifying the chemical elements silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium. Students
working in Berzeliuss laboratory also discovered lithium
and vanadium.

Berzelius had an eect on biology as well. He was

the rst person to make the distinction between organic compounds (those containing carbon), and inorganic compounds. In particular, he advised Gerardus Johannes Mulder in his elemental analyses of organic compounds such as coee, tea, and various proteins. The
term protein itself was coined by Berzelius, after Mulder observed that all proteins seemed to have the same
empirical formula and came to the erroneous conclusion
that they might be composed of a single type of very large
molecule. Berzelius proposed the name because the material seemed to be the primitive substance of animal nutrition that plants prepare for herbivores.

2.6 Vitalism
Berzelius stated in 1810 that living things work by some
mysterious vital force,[10] a hypothesis called vitalism.
Related to this, he proposed that compounds could be
distinguished by whether they required any organisms
in their manufacture (organic compounds) or whether
they did not (inorganic compounds). However, in 1828,
Friedrich Whler accidentally obtained urea, an organic
compound, by heating ammonium cyanate. Contrary to
a widespread myth, it was not the end of this vitalist
hypothesis, let alone vitalism in general. But in 1845,
Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe prepared acetic acid
from inorganic precursors, and in the 1850s, Marcellin
Berthelot synthesized numerous organic compounds from
inorganic precursors, providing abundant counterevidence. The FischerTropsch process for making hydrocarbons, the MillerUrey experiment and other prebioticchemistry experiments, and biosynthesis pathways provide even more counterevidence.

Relations with other scientists

Berzelius was a prolic correspondent with such leading

scientists as Gerardus Johannes Mulder, Claude Louis
Berthollet, Humphry Davy, Friedrich Whler and Eilhard
Mitscherlich.
After denying that chlorine is an element (which was proposed by Humphry Davy in 1810) for quite some time,
the dispute was ended by the nding of iodine in 1812.

Family

[6] Jns Jacob Berzelius (1779 - 1848)". Royal Netherlands

Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
[7] Berzelius, Jacob (1813), Thomson, Thomas, ed., Essay
on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and
easy Method of expressing them, Annals of Philosophy,
London: Robert Baldwin, II & III, pp 443 454 & pp
51 62, 93 106, 244 256, 353 364, retrieved 13
December 2014 also Vol III
[8] NationalEncyklopedin. Hgans, Sweden: Bra Bcker
AB. 1990. p. 484. ISBN 91-7024-619-X.
[9] Berzelius 1813, Vol III, pp 51 52.
[10] Cornish-Bawden, Athel, ed. (1997), New Beer in an Old
Bottle. Eduard Buchner and the Growth of Biochemical
Knowledge, Universitat de Valncia, pp. 7273
[11] Biographical Dictionary of Scientists ed. T. I. Williams.
London: A. & C. Black, 1969; pp. 5556
[12] Berzelius, Johan Jakob, Baron. Chambers Biographical
Dictionary 1897.

6 Further reading
Statue of Berzelius in the center of Berzelii Park, Stockholm

In 1818 Berzelius was ennobled by King Carl XIV Johan;

in 1835, at the age of 56, he married Elisabeth Poppius,
the 24-year-old daughter of a Swedish cabinet minister,
and in the same year was elevated to friherre.[11]
Berzeliusskolan, a school situated next to his alma mater,
Katedralskolan, is named for him. In 1939 his portrait
appeared on a series of postage stamps commemorating
the bicentenary of the founding of the Swedish Academy
of Sciences.
He died on 7 August 1848 at his home in Stockholm,
where he had lived since 1806.[12]

References

[1] Jns Jacob Berzelius. Encyclopdia Britannica Online.

Retrieved 3 August 2008.
[2] Berzelius Day honoured on YouTube

Jaime Wisniak (2000). Jns Jacob Berzelius

A Guide to the Perplexed Chemist.
The
Chemical Educator.
5 (6):
343350.
doi:10.1007/s00897000430a.
Paul Walden (1947).
Zum 100.
Todestag
von Jns Jakob Berzelius am 7.
August
1948.
Naturwissenschaften.
34 (11):
321327.
Bibcode:1947NW.....34..321W.
doi:10.1007/BF00644137.
Holmberg, Arne (1933) Bibliogra ver J. J.
Berzelius. 2 parts in 5 vol. Stockholm: Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien, 193367. 1. del och
suppl. 12. Tryckta arbeten av och om Berzelius.
2. del och suppl. Manuskript
Jorpes, J. Erik (1966) Jac. Berzelius his life and
work; translated from the Swedish manuscript by
Barbara Steele. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell,
1966. (Reissued by University of California Press,
Berkeley, 1970 ISBN 0-520-01628-9)

[3] Karolinska Institutet 200 r 18102010

[4] Centre for History of Science at the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences: KVA och Berzelius, accessed 23
May 2009 (Swedish)

Leicester, Henry (197080). Berzelius, Jns Jacob. Dictionary of Scientic Biography. 2. New
York: Charles Scribners Sons. pp. 9097. ISBN
978-0-684-10114-9.

[5] Book of Members, 17802010: Chapter B (PDF).

American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 24
June 2011.

Partington, J. R. (1964) History of Chemistry; vol.

4. London: Macmillan; pp. 14277

External links
List of works by Berzelius (301 items as of access
date 2011-12-29)
Online works at Project Runeberg (Latin)
Works by Jns Jakob Berzelius at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Jns Jacob Berzelius at Internet
Archive
Online correspondence between Berzelius and Sir
Humphry Davy on Wikisource (English) (French)
Online works on Gallica (French) (Swedish) (27
items as of access date 2011-12-29)
Nordisk familjebok (1905), band 3, s.
(Swedish)

9096

Poliako, Martyn. Jns Jacob Berzelius. University

of Nottingham: The Periodic Table of Videos.
Digital edition of Lehrbuch der Chemie
1823/1824 by the University and State Library
Dsseldorf
Digital edition of Das saidschitzer Bitterwasser :
chemisch untersucht 1840 by the University and
State Library Dsseldorf
Digital edition of Aus Jac. Berzelius und Gustav
Magnus Briefwechsel in den Jahren 1828 - 1847
1900 by the University and State Library Dsseldorf
"Berzelius, Johan Jakob". The American Cyclopdia. 1879.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

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Jns Jacob Berzelius Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6ns_Jacob_Berzelius?oldid=730863267 Contributors: Mav, Bryan

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8.2

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8.3

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