Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/559

Rh one who has studied chemistry under the direction of Leopold Gmelin has very little to learn from me; but, nevertheless, I can not forego the pleasure of making your personal acquaintance, and will therefore cheerfully accept you as the companion of my labors. You can come whenever it is agreeable to you.” Armed with this permission, Wöhler at once made preparations for the journey. As his means were limited, he decided to take a sailing vessel from Lübeck, but when he reached that port he found that there was only a small craft in the harbor destined for Stockholm, and that it would be six weeks before she would sail. Of this delay he says, in a sketch furnished to the Berlin Chemical Society in 1875: “I could hardly have endured the loss of time had I not cultivated the acquaintance of Menge, the Icelandic traveler and genial mineral-dealer, in whose collections I could satisfy my fondness for minerals. I had already made his acquaintance in Frankfort, where I had exchanged specimens with him, and where he on one occasion introduced me to Goethe, who came to buy a fine specimen of copper azurite from Chessy.”

Menge introduced him to Kindt, the principal apothecary inLübeck, for whom he formed a lasting friendship, and with whom he resided the last three weeks of his stay in town. To occupy his time while waiting for the ship to take in cargo, Wöhler undertook, in company with Kindt, to prepare some potassium according to the method proposed by Brunner. Instead of a wrought-iron retort, they made use of one of the bottles in which mercury is furnished to commerce, while a bent gun-barrel served as the neck of the retort. He obtained such a rich supply of potassium that he was able to take a large quantity to Sweden, which afterward proved of great importance in Berzelius's experiments on the isolation of silicium, boron, andzirconium. It was also in Lübeck that Wöhler met for the first time Mitscherlich, who was returning from a visit to Berzelius. At last the ship set her sails, and on the 23d of October, 1823, started for Travemünde, where he took passage on the 25th. After a very stormy passage the vessel dropped anchor at Dalarö, a small port situated on the rocky coast, whence, to avoid a long sea-voyage, he decided to go by land to Stockholm. The officer of the guard who examined his passport, on hearing that he was going to study with Berzelius, declined to accept the usual fee, saying he “had too much respect for science and his celebrated countryman to take money from one who, in the pursuit of knowledge, had undertaken so long a journey.” Wöhler arrived at Stockholm at night, and early the next morning could hardly restrain his impatience to call upon the great master.

Berzelius had an official residence in the Academy of Sciences, and a medical student, whose acquaintance he had casually made, showed the way. We will let Wöhler himself describe his first interview: “With a throbbing heart I stood before Berzelius's door and rang the bell. A well-dressed, dignified gentleman, with florid and healthy