On the Origin of the Atomic Theory. 807 



The Doctor acknowledges with ivonderful candour, that it 

 Was known at tliis period that hydrogen iniites only in one pro- 

 portion with oxygen ; that carbon, sul])luir, and phosphorus 

 tinite in two proportions ; and so he goes on enumerating other 

 combinations long known before this period. 



It would be needless to follow the Doctor through all his de- 

 tails, most of them being well known ; and many misrepresen- 

 tations are brought forward, in order to prepare the way for his 

 ingenious friend to take possession of the Atomic System. 



The proportions in which inflammable substances and oxy- 

 gen are found to unite, such as I and 1, or 1 and 2, &c. by 

 weight, " led Mr. Daltun to the htcky idea that the atoms of 

 bodies unite together ; that the atom of each body has a deter- 

 miaute weight, and that this weight regulates the proportion in 

 which bodies combine. Let us supi)ose, for example, that water 

 is formed by the union of one atom of oxygen with one atom of 

 liydrogen ; it follows, as the oxygen in water is eight times that 

 of the hydrogen, that the weight of the atom of oxygen is to 

 that cf an atom of hydrogen as S to 1. So that if we represent 

 the weight of an atom of hydrogen by 1, that of an atom of 

 oxvgen will be 8." The Doctor adduces many more examples 

 of this kind, which first appeared in my Comparulive Vieiv, as 

 shall be presently shown. 



"But Mr. Dalton," contiiuies the Doctor, "not satisfied 

 with this simple and luminous explanation, which threw a new 

 and strong light around chemical combinations, which afforded 

 the means of correcting and checking chemical experiments 

 hitherto conducted without any guide, and promised in tune to 

 introduce mathematical piecision and mathematical reasoning 

 into a science which hitherto has been able onlv to boast of 



analogical and proI)able conclusions contrived a set of 



symbols to represent the different elements, and make the nature 

 of tiie combinations which they form obvious to the eye of the 

 most careless reader." An engraved specimen of those symbols 

 is given, so far as they relate to the ultimate particles of hydro- 

 gen, azote, carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, and oxygen. The 

 symbols representing the inflammalde particles or bases are 

 imited to those representing particles of oxvgen in ih.c propor- 

 tion in which they are capable individually of combining with 

 that element, that is, cither 1 and 1, I and 2, 1 and o, or 4, &:c. 



These diagrams, if diagrams I can call them, are much more 

 correct than Dalton's*. They correspond with the proportions 

 ot elementary particles represented by diagrams so as to consti- 

 tute the same compound atoms in my Comparative View, ex- 



• Sne liis woi •;, or my Atomic Tlicory, wliere tlie original symbols are 

 Biii'ii. 



cept 



