MaiicJiestcr Memoirs^ Vol. h. (191 1), iV^^. <». 15 



The germ of it is to be found in Newton's theory and in 

 Dalton's physical theory of the year 1801, and one must 

 recog;nise the space of two years during which it remained 

 in the germ. There comes tlien the experiment of the 

 4th of August, 1803, sufficient to arouse Dalton's attention 

 and make him apply his theory to the purposes of 

 chemistry. He frames the rule of i : i, then considers 

 the less simple cases, and tests his ideas by the available 

 analytical data. By the 6th of September he is able 

 to draw up the first atomic-weight table. 



Clieuiistry tvithout the atomic tJieory. 



Attempts have been made in recent years, by VVald 

 and Ostwald, to deduce the laws of chemical combination 

 from first principles, without making any use of the 

 atomic theory.'" It seems to the author worth pointing 

 out here that there is no connection between the modes of 

 thought taken by these writers, and the process by which 

 these laws were actually established. With the atomic 

 theory as a starting point, they were formulated by Dalton 

 and completely established by Berzelius. Moreover, at 

 the same time and as a matter of course, the foundations 

 •of chemical analysis as a genuine science were laid. 



The failure of other icorkcrs. 



Sufficient attention has not been given to the question, 

 why it should have been left to Dalton to draw attention 

 to the law of multiple proportion ? It was not the want 

 of interest in the subject of chemical composition. The 

 workers on the subject, towards the end of the eighteenth 

 and the beginning of the nineteenth century, were quite 

 numerous. One may name Bergman, Wenzel, Klaproth, 

 Lavoisier, Richter, Kirwan, Thomson, Bucholz, Chenevix, 



^^ See the Faraday Lecture, Trans. Clieui. Soc, 1904. 



