THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE. 



r. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Propor- 

 tions, ill which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub' 

 stances are united with each other. By Jac«.)B Berze- 

 i-ius, Professor of Medicine and pharmacy, and M.R.A. 

 Stockholm. 



[From GjLBEaT's Journal, 1811, iii. . . . Translated from a copy corrected 

 by the Author expressly for this Work. J 



M. 



PART FIRST, 



.R. Eerthollet, one of the most celebrated chemists 

 of our limes, has endeavoured to demonstrate, in his in- 

 genious researches respecting the laws of chemical affini- 

 ties, that elementary substances may unite with each other 

 in an infinite number of progressive proportions. Mr, 

 Proust, however, another great master of the science, has 

 shown, in opposition to him, that no such infinite variety 

 of progressions is to be found in nature: but that all com- 

 pound and precisely characterized bodies exhibit only a 

 single and invariable proportion between their component 

 parts ; and that when a protoxide, for example, is con- 

 verted by an additional portion of (me oi its component 

 parts, that is of oxygen, into an oxide, this happens per 

 saltum, proceeding at once to another precisely determined 

 proportion, so that any continued series of combinations 

 between these limits is out of the questum. The truth of 

 Proust's remark cannot luve escaped any experienced che- 

 mist : but it has not hiiherto been asrertamed whether 

 these distinct steps or stages of combination follow one 

 and the same law lor substances of all kinds, or whether 

 the proportions are indeterminate, and diflerent for difilrent 

 Vol.41. No, 177. .7a?<. 1813. As substances. 



