9.6 Bergman’s Relations with Wallerius and von
Engeström
Wallerius (Fig. 9.16) had spent years building up the chemical institution at
Uppsala. He had started from scratch and both established chemistry as an independent discipline at the university and himself as a respected scientist well known
in Europe. He must have been quite proud of what he had achieved and, of course,
he had hoped for a successor who continued in his footsteps. The appointment of
Bergman as his successor must have come as a chock, and soon Wallerius would
see his worst fears come true. Bergman had a completely different philosophy
compared to Wallerius and he rapidly and systematically erased every trace of
Wallerius’ work, starting with the layout of the laboratory.
After the infamous dissertation in 1741, Wallerius and Linnaeus appears to have
accepted each other as they had much in common and worked along similar lines of
thought. As a botanist, Linnaeus did not have to conduct experiments. He believed
that God had created the World and given him the mission to explain the creation to
mankind. Thus, Linnaeus observed nature and tried, very successfully, to develop a
system for classification. By only observing God’s creation, he could classify nature
based on the principles used by God in the creation. Essentially, Wallerius believed
he could approach chemistry in a similar manner. His main focus was not experimentation, but he attempted to create a chemical system largely based on known
facts [93]. As he rejected most new discoveries in the rapidly developing field of
chemistry,
19 this strategy was of course doomed to fail, but one must still
acknowledge his serious attempts. When reading his textbook, Physica Chemica,
his generous use of literature references is rather striking, not least considering that
references to primary literature are quite uncommon in modern chemistry textbooks
on the undergraduate level. Unfortunately, Wallerius often relied on old and
out-dated sources.
While Wallerius mainly relied on older chemical authorities and the Bible,
Bergman based much of his philosophy on Newton. In his thesis on the history of
chemistry (Sect. 9.3), for example, he wrote “…Newton, the great Newton, the
glory and ornament of the human understanding…” [94] Chemistry based on the
theories of Newton became of course rather different from the qualitative chemistry
of Wallerius. While Wallerius simply did not believe that the recent developments
in chemistry had revealed any significant facts unknown to earlier researchers [95],
Bergman was of a completely different opinion and introduced modern experimental chemistry in Swedish academic chemistry.
Wallerius, who suddenly found himself isolated and without authority after
Bergman’s appointment, did not accept his new situation and launched a campaign
against Bergman. On September 25, 1769, an anonymous paper appeared in Inrikes
Tidningar (Domestic Newspapers) [96]. The author, which Bergman recognised as
Wallerius, criticised a footnote in his paper on the Mountains of Västergötland
(Chap. 7). In this note, Bergman wrote: “That clay on drying can gain the hardness
19
At least those contradicting his own views.
134
9 Bergman Becomes a Chemist
Engeström
Wallerius (Fig. 9.16) had spent years building up the chemical institution at
Uppsala. He had started from scratch and both established chemistry as an independent discipline at the university and himself as a respected scientist well known
in Europe. He must have been quite proud of what he had achieved and, of course,
he had hoped for a successor who continued in his footsteps. The appointment of
Bergman as his successor must have come as a chock, and soon Wallerius would
see his worst fears come true. Bergman had a completely different philosophy
compared to Wallerius and he rapidly and systematically erased every trace of
Wallerius’ work, starting with the layout of the laboratory.
After the infamous dissertation in 1741, Wallerius and Linnaeus appears to have
accepted each other as they had much in common and worked along similar lines of
thought. As a botanist, Linnaeus did not have to conduct experiments. He believed
that God had created the World and given him the mission to explain the creation to
mankind. Thus, Linnaeus observed nature and tried, very successfully, to develop a
system for classification. By only observing God’s creation, he could classify nature
based on the principles used by God in the creation. Essentially, Wallerius believed
he could approach chemistry in a similar manner. His main focus was not experimentation, but he attempted to create a chemical system largely based on known
facts [93]. As he rejected most new discoveries in the rapidly developing field of
chemistry,
19 this strategy was of course doomed to fail, but one must still
acknowledge his serious attempts. When reading his textbook, Physica Chemica,
his generous use of literature references is rather striking, not least considering that
references to primary literature are quite uncommon in modern chemistry textbooks
on the undergraduate level. Unfortunately, Wallerius often relied on old and
out-dated sources.
While Wallerius mainly relied on older chemical authorities and the Bible,
Bergman based much of his philosophy on Newton. In his thesis on the history of
chemistry (Sect. 9.3), for example, he wrote “…Newton, the great Newton, the
glory and ornament of the human understanding…” [94] Chemistry based on the
theories of Newton became of course rather different from the qualitative chemistry
of Wallerius. While Wallerius simply did not believe that the recent developments
in chemistry had revealed any significant facts unknown to earlier researchers [95],
Bergman was of a completely different opinion and introduced modern experimental chemistry in Swedish academic chemistry.
Wallerius, who suddenly found himself isolated and without authority after
Bergman’s appointment, did not accept his new situation and launched a campaign
against Bergman. On September 25, 1769, an anonymous paper appeared in Inrikes
Tidningar (Domestic Newspapers) [96]. The author, which Bergman recognised as
Wallerius, criticised a footnote in his paper on the Mountains of Västergötland
(Chap. 7). In this note, Bergman wrote: “That clay on drying can gain the hardness
19
At least those contradicting his own views.
134
9 Bergman Becomes a Chemist