lo Meldrum, Developnieni of the Atomic Theory. 



himself the task of testincr the validity of Dalton's theory 

 on the grand scale. As he said, " this way of regarding 

 chemical compounds at once throws such a clear light on 

 the doctrine of affinity, that if the hypothesis of Dalton 

 could be proved, it should count as the greatest step that 

 chemistry had made towards its perfection as a science.'"'' 

 As Lord Morley has pointed out, the people who 

 launch great ideas on the world are seldom the people 

 who apply them. Dalton's and Thomson's efforts to make 

 the atomic theory widely known were really far more 

 valuable than the concrete results they obtained by the 

 use of it. Dalton himself was involved by the theory in 

 a " labyrinth of chemical investigation," where he wandered 

 for many years and wasted his energies. It was Berzelius, 

 and no other, who applied it, made it the foundation of 

 accurate chemical analysis, and proved it to be an organon 

 of incomparable power for the advancement of chemistry. 



1' Loc. fit. 



