Used with
permission of Maiken Naylor, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA,
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/exhibits/stamps
Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848), a Swedish chemist, devised the symbolic language of chemistry, designating each element by the first letter(s) of its Latin name. He measured atomic weights and advanced the idea of radicals, and was the influential author of a textbook and annual reviews of chemical progress.