During the whole of this period he had been silently studying chemistry and mineralogy, though nobody suspected that he was engaged in any such pursuits. But in 1767 John Gottschalk Wallerius, who had long filled the chair of chemistry in the University of Upsala, with high reputation, resigned his chair. Bergman immediately offered himself as a candidate for the vacant professorship: and, to show that he was qualified for the office, published two dissertations on the Manufacture of Alum, which probably he had previously drawn up, and had lying by him. Wallerius intended to resign his chair in favour of a pupil or relation of his own, whom he had destined to succeed him. He immediately formed a party to oppose the pretensions of Bergman; and his party was so powerful and so malignant, that few doubted of their success: for it was joined by all those who, despairing of equalling the industry and reputation of Bergman, set themselves to oppose and obstruct his success. Such men unhappily exist in all colleges, and the more eminent a professor is, the more is he exposed to their malignant activity. Many of those who cannot themselves rise to any eminence, derive pleasure from the attempt to pull down the eminent to their own level. In these attempts, however, they seldom succeed, unless from some want of prudence and steadiness in the individual whom they assail. Bergman's Dissertations on Alum were severely handled by Wallerius and his party: and such was the influence of the ex-professor, that every body thought Bergman would be crushed by him. Fortunately, Gustavus III. of Sweden, at that time crown prince, was chancellor of the university. He took up the cause of Bergman, influenced, it is said, by the recommendation of Von Swab, who pledged himself for his qualifications, and was so keen on the subject that he pleaded his cause in person before the senate. Wallerius and his party were of course baffled, and Bergman got the chair. For this situation his previous studies had fitted him in a peculiar manner. His mathematical, physical, and natural-historical knowledge, so far from being useless, contributed to free him from prejudices, and to emancipate him from that spirit of routine under which chemistry had hitherto suffered. They gave to his ideas a greater degree of precision, and made his views more correct. He saw that mathematics and chemistry divided between them the whole extent of natural science, and that its bounds required to be enlarged, to enable it to embrace all the different branches of science with which it was naturally connected, or which depended upon it. He saw the necessity of banishing from chemistry all vague hypotheses and explanations, and of establishing the science on the firm basis of experiment. He was equally convinced of the necessity of reforming the nomenclature of chemistry, and of bringing it to the same degree of precision that characterized the language of the other branches of natural philosophy.