Some insight into Scheele’s life at the time is provided by a concept for a letter
written by Scheele to his brother Friedrich Christoph. It is an answer to letter dated
October 4, 1781, which gives an approximate dating of Scheele’s letter. Scheele
congratulates his brother, who just had a son, and thank him for apples that his
brother had sent him from Stralsund. Mrs Pohl was supposed to have picked
lingonberries in return, but due to the drought, there had been no lingonberries to
pick. Then, he discussed his sister, Anna:
What the other thing with our sister concerns, I have not been able to do anything with my
newly bought house this summer; he who lives there was so persistent not to move before
Michaelmas [September 29]. If the auction had been held two weeks earlier, he would have
had to move out by last Easter. Now he is gone, but to build in the winter is no good, so I
have to wait for the summer. It is true that I have a room free for Anna, but is it not possible
that I would need the room before that? Could not I under these circumstances marry like
you? If so, I plan to hold a wedding by autumn. Should not I then become a children
manufacturer
1 just like you?
Whether Scheele actually had a particular woman in mind (Mrs Pohl for
instance) is not known. It should be noted that Scheele clearly did not intend to
devote his whole life to his science as is usually claimed, but that he intended
to become a family father. This was unfortunately not to be. Scheele continued to
argue for his sister to remain in Germany:
It is also another issue that puts obstacles in the way. I have told Mrs Pohl about our sisters
trip here, and she does not seem to be happy with it, since our deceased sister had told her
too honestly about or sister’s (Anna’s) character, she is also convinced about the truth in
this, based on the letter she [i.e. Anna] sent me last year, filled with dislike regarding the
dividing of our deceased sisters belongings.
From a previous letter concept, it turns out that Scheele had spent 74 riksdaler, a
considerable amount of money, on the funeral and wanted to pay with a part of his
dead sister’s belongings, while he would send clothes and most of what remained to
his sister Anna. Apparently, Anna was not happy. An interesting detail is that when
Scheele wrote “silver jewellery”, he did not write “silver” but it’s chemical symbol,
a half-moon. Whether he changed this in the final letter is not known. Anna
remained in Stralsund, but died not long after. It is also noteworthy how close
Scheele and Mrs Pohl were, and that Scheele took her opinions into consideration,
and told her about family matters.
Scheele used saved money to buy the new house, which gave him a much more
convenient laboratory. The money from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Sect. 19.4) was probably more than welcome. The new pharmacy was a wooden
building in two storeys and served as pharmacy for a century. In 1889, the out-dated
building was demolished by apothecary Arbman (sad, but the 1889 fire would
probably have destroyed it anyway). It was replaced by a stone building (Fig. 19.3),
which was used as pharmacy until 1970 when it was converted to apartments. A set
of wooden boxes (Fig. 19.4) used for drugs survived as they were sold to the
pharmacies in Södertälje and Strömsund, from where they were later acquired by
1
Scheele used the word “kindessfabrikatör” in the original manuscript. Note his odd spelling.
258
19 Scheele in Köping
written by Scheele to his brother Friedrich Christoph. It is an answer to letter dated
October 4, 1781, which gives an approximate dating of Scheele’s letter. Scheele
congratulates his brother, who just had a son, and thank him for apples that his
brother had sent him from Stralsund. Mrs Pohl was supposed to have picked
lingonberries in return, but due to the drought, there had been no lingonberries to
pick. Then, he discussed his sister, Anna:
What the other thing with our sister concerns, I have not been able to do anything with my
newly bought house this summer; he who lives there was so persistent not to move before
Michaelmas [September 29]. If the auction had been held two weeks earlier, he would have
had to move out by last Easter. Now he is gone, but to build in the winter is no good, so I
have to wait for the summer. It is true that I have a room free for Anna, but is it not possible
that I would need the room before that? Could not I under these circumstances marry like
you? If so, I plan to hold a wedding by autumn. Should not I then become a children
manufacturer
1 just like you?
Whether Scheele actually had a particular woman in mind (Mrs Pohl for
instance) is not known. It should be noted that Scheele clearly did not intend to
devote his whole life to his science as is usually claimed, but that he intended
to become a family father. This was unfortunately not to be. Scheele continued to
argue for his sister to remain in Germany:
It is also another issue that puts obstacles in the way. I have told Mrs Pohl about our sisters
trip here, and she does not seem to be happy with it, since our deceased sister had told her
too honestly about or sister’s (Anna’s) character, she is also convinced about the truth in
this, based on the letter she [i.e. Anna] sent me last year, filled with dislike regarding the
dividing of our deceased sisters belongings.
From a previous letter concept, it turns out that Scheele had spent 74 riksdaler, a
considerable amount of money, on the funeral and wanted to pay with a part of his
dead sister’s belongings, while he would send clothes and most of what remained to
his sister Anna. Apparently, Anna was not happy. An interesting detail is that when
Scheele wrote “silver jewellery”, he did not write “silver” but it’s chemical symbol,
a half-moon. Whether he changed this in the final letter is not known. Anna
remained in Stralsund, but died not long after. It is also noteworthy how close
Scheele and Mrs Pohl were, and that Scheele took her opinions into consideration,
and told her about family matters.
Scheele used saved money to buy the new house, which gave him a much more
convenient laboratory. The money from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Sect. 19.4) was probably more than welcome. The new pharmacy was a wooden
building in two storeys and served as pharmacy for a century. In 1889, the out-dated
building was demolished by apothecary Arbman (sad, but the 1889 fire would
probably have destroyed it anyway). It was replaced by a stone building (Fig. 19.3),
which was used as pharmacy until 1970 when it was converted to apartments. A set
of wooden boxes (Fig. 19.4) used for drugs survived as they were sold to the
pharmacies in Södertälje and Strömsund, from where they were later acquired by
1
Scheele used the word “kindessfabrikatör” in the original manuscript. Note his odd spelling.
258
19 Scheele in Köping