BERGMAN, TORBERN OLOF Swedish chemist and naturalist, was born at Katrineberg, Vestergotland, Sweden, on March 20, 1735. He was educated at the University of Uppsala, and, after taking his degiee, began to teach mathe matics and physics at the university, publishing papers on the rainbow, the aurora, the pyroelectric phenomena of tourmaline, etc. In 1767 he became professor of chemistry and mineralogy. He died at Medevi on Lake Vetter on July 8, 1784. Bergman's most important chemical paper is his Essay of Elective Attrac tions (1775), a study of chemical affinity. In methods of chemical analysis, both by the blowpipe and in the wet way, he effected many improvements and made considerable contributions to mineralogical and geological chemistry, and to crystallography. He also made observations of the transit of Venus in 1761, and published a Physical Description of the Earth in 1766.
His works were collected and printed in 6 vols. as Opuscula Physica et Chemica in 1779-9o, and were translated into French, German and English.