HI8T0EY OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 209 



uffinities every kind of neutralizable substance has its own 

 quantitative law of affinity, because the amount of affinities 

 among the alkalies may be expressed by the mass, that of 

 the acids by the substratum (that is, the body of which the 

 oxygen of the acid is an oxide) ; but this is not found to be 

 the case either with the metallic or nonmetallic combustible 

 elements." 



What then did Richter attain to is the question to be now 

 answered. In the extract from the preface he raises the study 

 of atomic chemistry to a science, and gives it a name. This 

 is itself no small honour. The chemists before him had 

 certainly not been gifted with such a clear appreciation of the 

 importance of the study. We find that Richter has made it 

 the leading object of his life to elucidate the laws of com- 

 bination; as a young beginner, making it a subject of his 

 inaugural dissertation, and looking forward to the time when 

 be might have opportunity to prosecute his investigations. 

 The word stcechiometry is preserved in Germany, with us it 

 is too abstract for daily use. 



The first definition of stoechiometry has appended to it 

 six experiences (erfahrung), most of them with corolla- 

 ries (zusatz). The reading becomes, therefore, exceedingly 

 cumbrous, the words are marvellously multiplied, pure abstrac- 

 tion is aimed at in every step with painful strains, as it would 

 appear, or perhaps only caused by a mathematical habit of 

 mind too exclusively followed. In this way the few truths 

 that we still hold to, and which are contained in the book, are 

 to oniamented and overdressed as to have been to most 

 persons entirely hidden under the richness of the elaboration. 



He expresses his belief that the smallest portions of a body 

 are of the same composition as the largest. He says that the 

 affinity exists in every particle. Then adds that every piece 

 must have the same composition. His own words are very 

 cumbrous, but this meaning is distinctly there. This was 

 the illustration which Dalton afterwards used on the same 

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