J. A. Arfwedson and his service to chemistry

Although the histories of chemistry devote hut little space to the work of J. A. Arfwedson, the discoverer of lithium, Berzelius correspondence, travel-diary, and autobiography contain much interesting information about him. The superb biography of Berzelius which H. G. Soderbaum completed near the close of his life also throws much light on Arfwedson s chemical activity. 

Arfwedson immediately set to work analyzing meionite and leucite (3, 4, 5). He observed that although the leucite was very infusible, the meionite melted readily before the blowpipe, swelled, and formed an enamel. Since his analysis of meionite agreed closely with Klaproth s analysis of leucite, Arfwedson analyzed a specimen of leucite and found these two minerals to be very similar in composition, except that the leucite contained no lime. Suspecting, therefore, that the lime must be the cause of the meionite s fusibility, he mixed a little lime with the leucite, after which it, too, could be easily melted. 

In the autumn of the same year, Arfwedson completed a beautiful research on the oxides of manganese. He determined the per cent of 

This chapter was originally presented by Mary E. Larson and the author before the Divisions of History of Chemistry and Chemical Education at the Midwest Regional Meeting of the A. C. S., Omaha, Nebraska, April 30, 1937. 

When he had completed the manganese research, Berzelius set him to work at analyzing a new mineral, petalite, from the iron mine on Uto, one of the many rocky islands or skerries which comprise Stock- 

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