Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
BERZELIUS, JÖNS JACOB. - Swedish chemist, born at Våversunda on 20 Aug. 1779, died at Stockholm on 2 Aug. 1848. By his scientific industry, experimental precision, and ardent genius, he surpassed all the chemists of his time, making important contributions in every field of theoretical and practical chemistry (determination of atomic weights, discovery of new elements, creation of chemical nomenclature, theory of radicals, etc.). He wrote the first great treatise on chemistry, which served as a model for all those that followed, and published annual reports on the progress of this science, in which he subjected to objective criticism the works on chemistry then being published.
Born poor, he led a modest life; the son of a Protestant pastor, he was of a religious disposition. In his treatise on chemistry he wished openly to declare his faith in God the Creator, inferred from the purposefulness found in every element of nature; and he stigmatized atheism as an illogical theory, incapable of giving us the reason for the facts established by science.
BIBL.: C. L. Kneller, Il Cristianesimo e i naturalisti moderni, Italian trans. by A. Boni, Brescia 1906, pp. 245-47; I. Guareschi, Suppl. ann. Enciclop. di Chimica, 31 (1915), pp. 307-406; A. G. Soderbaum-Buge, Buch der grossen Chemiker, I, Berlino 1920, p. 428; M. Giua, Storia della Chimica, Torino 1946, pp. 128-34. Giulio Provenzal
Cite this article
“BERZELIUS, JÖNS JACOB.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 863. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/berzelius-jons-jacob.
