18 On Isomeric Transmutation, and the Nature of 



of its truth or probability. Let the received atomic weight of 

 silicon, 22*22, be diminished by removal of the decimals, and 

 made the round number 22. Such an alteration will, not im- 

 probably, be made by chemists, apart from all consideration of 

 the question of transmutation. Then divide the received atom 

 of carbon, 6, by 3, a liberty which would be conceded by many 

 of my brethren, and it becomes 2 ; of which silicon is a multiple 

 by the whole number 11. 11 atoms of carbon might, by syn- 

 thetic transmutation, become 1 atom = 22 silicon, without any 

 difficulty in the way of atomic weights.* 



From all that I have said, it will be manifest that no light 

 task awaits those who propose to labour in the cause of trans- 

 mutation. In the particular case of silicon, the question 

 between Mr Knox and Dr Brown is one which can be settled 

 only in the laboratory. It is possible that both of these gen- 

 tlemen are right in their views. Nitrogen may be a compound 

 of silicon and hydrogen, and silicon nevertheless, a compound 



* I need scarcely say, that such a speculation possesses at present not 

 the slightest value, and was pursued only at a time when I believed that 

 there was full demonstration by experiment of the transmutability of 

 carbon into silicon. 



The recent researches of Dumas, Erdmann, and other continental che- 

 mists, have shewn, that the atomic weights of several of the elementary 

 bodies (carbon, nitrogen, calcium, barium, strontium) are multiples, in 

 whole numbers of that of hydrogen ; and many, both in this country and 

 abroad, encourage the expectation, that the equivalents of all the ele- 

 ments will prove^ according to Dr Front's hypothesis, multiples of hydro- 

 gen in the same way. I was willing to hope, that the atom of silicon at 

 least, which, owing to the difficulty of procuring that substance, has been 

 fixed on the evidence of comparatively few experiments, might prove to 

 be a multiple of that of hydrogen by 22. This is a point to be decided 

 solely by experiment. 



As for the division of the equivalent of carbon by 3, it is acknowledged 

 on all hands, that the received atomic weights may be multiples, or sub- 

 multiples of the true ones. Thus, it is matter of dispute among chemists 

 what are the true equivalents of copper, mercury, arsenic, phosphorus, 

 antimony, and several others ; and any alteration is hypothetically justi- 

 fiable which does not contradict the law of multiple combination, and for 

 which a sufficient necessity can be shewn. The justifying necessity in 

 this case would have been the transmutation of carbon into silicon, and 

 the acknowledgment of the atomic weight of the latter as 22, 



