CHE-MICAL SCIENCE. 273 



retained that opinion to the end of his days. In 1815, however, Dr. William 

 Prout, in n memoir on the specific weight of gases, originated the remarkable 

 idea that the atomic weight of bodies, well determined at that time, might 

 be represented by multiples of the weight of hydrogen gas. This hypothe- 

 sis was generally received in England, but not on the Continent, and was 

 shown to be inexact by Turner in 1833. In 1839 and 1810, however, its cor- 

 rectness with respect to carbon was shown by Dumas and Stass ; and also, 

 in 1833, with respect to the elements of water, by Erdmann and Marchand; 

 while other chemists arrived at a totally different conclusion. Since then, 

 M. Stass has given the leisure of years to the study of this subject, under- 

 taking his researches in full confidence in the correctness of Front's hypothe- 

 sis. Now, however, he states that he has arrived at the complete conviction 

 that this hypothesis, and all the conclusions derived from it by Dumas and 

 others, are contradicted by experiment, and that there does not exist any 

 common divisor among the weights of simple bodies which unite to form 

 definite combinations. 



