168 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



'* Observations on the experiments and philosophy exhibited 

 in the foregoing course of chemistry, and other experiments 

 which demonstrate the existence of seven primary distinct 

 elements of matter, viz. ; 



Earth, Air, 



Water, Phlogiston, 



Alkali, Light. 



Acid, 



" Experiments, observations, and arguments, persuading 

 that each primary element consists of atoms homogeneal; 

 that these atoms are impenetrable, immutable in figure, incon- 

 vertible, and that, in the ordinary course of nature, they are 

 not annihilated, nor newly created. 



" Observations and experiments, persuading that the atoms 

 of each element are globular, or nearly so, and that the spiral, 

 spicular and other figures ascribed to these atoms, are fictions 

 unnecessary, and are inconsistent with the uniformity and 

 simplicity of nature, and repugnant to experience. » * * 



" Experiments and observations showing that the possible 

 and known unions of the foregoing elements, and that the 

 possible and known proportions in which the unions of the 

 foregoing elements may take place, are more numerous than 

 the bodies distinguished by philosophers and naturalists ; per- 

 suading that all known bodies are really composed of one or 

 more of the foregoing elements; and that all bodies must be 

 admitted to consist of these only until other elementary matter 

 is found necessary for the explication of the natural phenomena, 

 and is demonstrated to exist. 



" A classical arrangement on the table of bodies composed 

 of two or three primary elements, which bodies, in various 

 chemical processes, not being decomposed, we call chemical 

 elements, or the elements of the chemists. 



" A like classical arrangement of bodies composed of two 

 chemical elements. 



