2. His next paper, "On the Analyses of Mineral Waters," was first published in 1778, being the subject of a thesis, supported by J. P. Scharenberg. This dissertation, which is of great length, is entitled to much praise. He lays therein the foundation of the mode of analyzing waters, such as is followed at present. He points out the use of different reagents, for detecting the presence of the various constituents in mineral water, and then shows how the quantity of each is to be determined. It would be doing great injustice to Bergman, to compare his analyses with those of any modern experimenter. At that time, the science was not in possession of any accurate analyses of the neutral salts, which exist in mineral waters. Bergman undertook these necessary analyses, without which, the determination of the saline constituents of mineral waters was out of the question. His determinations were not indeed accurate, but they were so much better than those that preceded them, and Bergman's character as an experimenter stood so high, that they were long referred to as a standard by chemists. The first attempt to correct them was by Kirwan. But Bergman's superior reputation as a chemist enabled his results still to keep their ground, till his character for accuracy was finally destroyed by the very accurate experiments which the discovery of the atomic theory rendered it necessary to make. These, when once they became generally known, were of course preferred, and Bergman's analyses were laid aside. It is a curious and humiliating fact, as it shows how much chemical reputation depends upon situation, or accidental circumstances, that Wenzel had, in 1766, in his book on _affinity_, published much more accurate analyses of all these salts, than Bergman's--analyses indeed which were almost perfectly correct, and which have scarcely been surpassed, by the most careful ones of the present day. Yet these admirable experiments scarcely drew the attention of chemists; while the very inferior ones of Bergman were held up as models of perfection.