A Leaf from the History of Swedish Natural Science 1

Abstract

I. BEFORE the Era of Freedom (1721, 1772) Sweden had produced only four men who had earned for themselves a recognised name in the history of the natural sciences by discoveries in the field of natural research. These were Sigfrid Aron Forsius,2 unfortunate in his predictions, author of a Mineralogy which had an extensive sale, but is full of superstition, and did not advance the science in any noteworthy degree; the quarrelsome and owhimsical Upsala professor, Olof Rudbeck,3 who, at the age of twenty-five, published his discovery of the lymphatic vessels; the physician of European reputation, Urban Hjaerne,4 superintendent of one of the first State laboratories established for scientific investigation, famous for his researches regarding mineral waters, the increase of oweight in metals on their oxidation, and formic acid, the discoverer of several new minerals, &c.; the afterwards so renowned mystic Emanuel Swedenborg,5 known in the history of the natural sciences for various geological treatises of great excellence, considering the period when they were written, for a remarkable work on atomicity, for several crystallographical researches, for the largest and most complete handbook on metallurgy, &c.