Background
He was born near Linkoping, Sweden, Aug. 20 or 29, 1779. He received an M.D. degree at Uppsala in 1802. By 1807 Berzelius was a full professor, and in 1815 he became professor of chemistry at the Caroline Medico-Chirurgical Institution at Stockholm, where he remained until 1832. Between 1808 and 1812 he established the law of multiple proportions and the law of reciprocal proportions, previously propounded by John Dalton. He died at Stockholm, Aug. 7, 1848.