216 HINRICHS— ATOMIC WEIGHT OF VANADIUM. [April 21, 



quite recent work (line C) and far surpassed by the small departures 

 of the much older work of Roscoe (line F). It is to be hoped that 

 Prandtl will also make one or two additional series under reaction 

 98, as he has done under 270 ; we dare say that, with due care, he 

 may repeat the experience he has reported for reaction 270 and 

 greatly reduce the departure, at least to that of Roscoe in 1868. 



It will hardl}" be necessary to state that the numerical data we 

 have quoted in the discussion of our Figs, i and 2 are taken from 

 tables II. and V. especially. 



CONCLUSIOX. 



We think that the reader will have no trouble now in completing 

 his study of the facts placed before him in our tables and in our 

 figures which both comprise much more than their size would seem 

 to indicate. 



We therefore think that the reader will fully understand the utter 

 fallacy of throwing all the errors of all kinds on the one element, 

 the atomic weight of which the modern chemist tries to determine 

 " in the chemical laboratory and by experiment exclusively." 



The reader will, we believe, now fully comprehend the situa- 

 tion — both of the chemist and of his intended victim, the element. 

 The victim — if it were conscious — would shiver in anticipation of 

 being made responsible for every error and mishap that may befall 

 any of the elements present in the reactions, the apparatus used and 

 even the chemist at work ; for all these errors and shortcomings the 

 modern chemical school dc facto charges up to the element the 

 atomic weight of which it undertakes to determine. The only new 

 step — other than what the general progress of practical laboratory 

 work may favor him with — will be the straining out a few more 

 innocent gnats without in the least disturbing the ever attendant 

 herd of the old camels. 



It sometimes does seem strange that in twenty years this Berze- 

 lian picture from Saint ^latthew (XXIII. , 24) has remained so 

 true to Nature. It is not the fault of the individual chemists, ex- 

 cept in so far as they have surrendered a fundamental part of- their 

 rightful domain to the International Atomic Weight Committee. 



