NUMERICAL TABLE OE ELECTITE ATTRACTION. 359 



It appears to be not improbable, that the attractive force Expression of 

 e x v, • 1.x • i. a the attractive 



of any two substances might, in many cases, be expressed f orce f two 



by the quotient of two numbers appropriate to the sub-su^^c 66 - 

 stances, or rather by the excess of that quotient above 

 unity; thus the attractive force of many of the acids for 

 the three principal alkalis might probably be correctly re- 

 presented in this manner; and where the order of attrac- 

 tions is different, perhaps the addition of a second, or of a 

 second and third quotient, derived from a different series of 

 numbers, would aiford an accurate determination of the 

 relative force of attraction, which would always be the 

 weaker, as the two substances concerned stood nearer to 

 each other in these orders of nnmbers ; so that, by affixing, 

 to each simple substance, two, three, or at most four num. 

 bers only, its attractive powers might be expressed in the 

 shortest and most general manner. 



I have thought it necessary to make some alterations in the Chemical or- 

 orthography generally adopted by chemists, not from a want ograp iy * 

 of deference to their individual authority, but because it ap- 

 pears to me, that there are certain rules of etymology, which 

 no modern author has a right to set aside. According to the 

 orthography universally established throughout the language, 

 without any material exceptions, our mode of writing Greek 

 words is always borrowed from the Romans, whose alphabet 

 we have adopted : thus the Greek vowel T, when alone, is 

 always expressed in Latin and English by Y, and the Greek 

 dipthong or by U, the Romans having no such dipthong as 

 OU or OY. The French have sometimes deviated from 

 this rule, and if it were excusable for any, it would be for 

 them, since their u and ou are pronounced exactly as the T 

 and OT of the Greeks probably were : but we have no such 

 excuse. Thus the French have used the term ac<nistique y 

 which some English authors have converted into u acoustics;'* 

 our anatomists, however, speak, much more correctly, of 

 the cc acustic" nerve. Instead of glucine, we ought cer- 

 tainly, for a similar reason, to write glycine; or glycina, if 

 the names of the earths are to end in a. Barytes, as a sin- 

 gle Greek word, means weight, and must be pronounced 

 barytes ; but as the name of a stone, accented on the se- 

 cond syllable, it must be written barites ; and the pure earth 

 may properly be called barita. Yttria I have altered ta 

 Itria, because no Latin word begins with a Y. 



