208 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



Then we have, p. 284, '^ Proportional quantities of neutral 

 compounds containing muriatic acid, considered as an- 

 hydrous, when decomposed by vitriolic acid J' Also, " Pro- 

 portional quantities, when the neutral compounds which 

 vitriolic acid makes with the alkaline salts and magnesia 

 are decomposed negatively or by free muriatic acid" P. 293. 



At page 190, he says, that the affinities are as the amount 

 of the combining proportions, and here also the atomic weights 

 of ammonia, soda, and potash, are such as to lend some 

 countenance to it. The series, however, is still considered 

 the most important thing, and he finds afterwards, in the vol. 

 for 1800, that smaller weights may precipitate larger ones. 



These inquiries were continued with great labour, and in 

 his work " On the newer subjects in chemistry," we have 

 many attempts to define the relations between the acids and 

 bases. In the vol. for 1798, we find him fixing the relation 

 between the metals and some of the acids, but always on the 

 same plan. 



At page XV. in the preface to the vol. for 1800, he says, 

 " To follow an author step by step, in a path trodden by him 

 alone, and to judge him with fairness, is not in the power of 

 every one, still less can it be done by merely reading through 

 his book." 



Page xxiii. Again, " Whoever looks on the remarkable 

 order, which reigns in the quantitative proportions, by which 

 every kind of substance has a peculiar quantitative character 

 with respect to another, as a mere play of figures, or as a 

 mere accident, would only show his complete ignorance of the 

 whole structure of stoechiometry, but would be indemnified for 

 it by a still greater degree of philosophical faith; for it requires 

 much more credulity to believe in so many accidents, than is 

 needed to perceive that the Lord of nature has not only qua- 

 litatively but quantitatively endued it with the most wonderful 

 order, both in great things and in small." 



Another extract from the same, page 206, " In the simpler 



