ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENV. XXXI 



others, may indulge in a more concise and complex system of notation, 

 than would be convenient, where either of the latter objects were con- 

 templated. 



As the shortest road is proverbially not always the most expeditious, 

 so in Chemical Notation more time may often be lost in correcting our 

 own blunders and those of the compositor, where dots and commas of 

 many sorts are introduced in the place of initial letters to express cer- 

 tain elements, than was gained by the more compendious method of 

 expression employed. Add to which, in the preference given to one 

 set of dots over another, or in the particular collocation of them, above, 

 below, or at the side of, the symbol to which they are referred, we have 

 no fixed principle to guide us, and can therefore only be determined by 

 the greater or less frequent adoption of one method than of another. 



Perhaps, therefore, all that can be hoped from a Committee of British 

 Chemists would be, to set forward the various uses of some system of 

 Chemical Notation, the purposes for which each of those brought before 

 them seems chiefly applicable, and the degree of prevalence which one 

 has obtained over the rest. 



If I may be allowed to offer my own humble opinion on a point wMch 

 has been so much debated amongst British chemists, I should remark, 

 that for the purpose of rendering more intelligible to beginners the 

 mode in which various bodies are supposed to combine, the Daltonian 

 method of Notation may still be of use, just as pictorial representation 

 often comes in aid of verbal description to convey the idea of a com- 

 plex object ; but that where the design is to state in the clearest and 

 least hypothetical terms, the nature of a series of combinations, a mode 

 of notation as closely as possible approaching to that adopted in algebra 

 seems preferable — remembering always, that as in algebra we omit cer- 

 tain signs for the sake of greater brevity, so it may be allowable to do 

 in applying its principles to Chemistry ; these abbreviations being of 

 course the most advisable in cases, where, by reason of the greater num- 

 ber of elements involved, the expression of them at whole length would 

 occupy so much space, as to prevent the whole from being compre- 

 hended at a glance. 



The above remarks will not, I believe, be found inconsistent with the 

 spirit of the brief report which Dr. Turner has communicated, and 

 which is to the following effect : — 



1st. That the majority of the Committee concur in approving of the 

 employment of that system of Notation which is already in general use 

 on the Continent, though there exist among them some difference of 

 opinion on points of detail. 



