Page:Hans Christian Ørsted - The Soul in Nature - Horner - 1852.djvu/13

x embraced the whole with a universal and philosophical perception, independent of certain prevailing systems. In the metaphysics of nature, he had emancipated himself in some essential points from Kant; and in a criticism of Gadolins' Introduction to Chemistry, he exhibited a new theory of alkalis, which at a later period was universally adopted. He now (1800) undertook the charge of an apothecary's shop, and delivered lectures on chemistry and natural metaphysics.

In the same year the galvanic battery was discovered by the Italian Volta, and galvanism now appeared as one of the most powerful forces of nature, which everywhere invited the disciples of science to new experiments. Oersted also took an active part in it, and even his first experiments led to new discoveries with respect to the powerful action of acids during the production of galvanic electricity, and of the relation of the opposite effects developed through the conductor of the battery to both poles; while he proved that both acids and alkalis are produced in proportion as they mutually neutralize each other.

Inspired with an earnest desire to penetrate deeper into the world of knowledge, he set out in 1801 upon his first journey into a foreign country, and there never was a more exciting or fertile period for an ardent spirit. Brown had changed the school of medicine into a battle-field, and the Hungarian chemist Winterl had given forth a new system in his eminent work, Prolusiones, which was reserved for the young Dane to bring forward by means of a critique to the German public, by whom it had at first been little regarded. Oersted at that time became personally acquainted with the celebrated men of Germany, and he everywhere met with the most favourable reception: the unusual depth of his learning and his active mind astonished all who came in contact with him; and the youthful freshness of his almost childlike