1 82 Mr. R. Warrington oji a Si/stem of Chemical Symbols^ 



the simple union or addition of the elements. As for instance, 

 in Sulphuret of Potassium, one proportion of sulphur is added 

 and chemically united to one proportion of potassium (kalhim), 

 which should be indicated by S + K, Sulphur + Kalium ; but 

 according to Berzelius's arrangement it would be written SK, 

 in which the components are apparently multiplied by each 

 other; and this, to use Professor Whewell's words (p. 4'4'1), 

 " violates all mathematical propriety so entirely, that it must 

 always be disagreeable to see an example of it for any person 

 who has acquired the first rudiments of algebra." 



The next point of consequence commented on, is the man- 

 ner of representing compounds which contain more than one 

 proportion of an elementary or compound body, and to which 

 the prefixes, Bis, Tris, Dis, &c. have been given. The method 

 pursued by Berzelius, is to place the numerals 2, 3, 4, &c. as 

 indices over the symbol corresponding to the element, acid, 

 or base : thus Bisulphuret of Iron, composed of two propor- 

 tions of sulphur + one of iron, would be wi'itten S'Fe; Bi- 



silicate of Alumina, S" A ; Bisulphate of Copper, S^ Cu ; Disul- 



phate of the Peroxide of Iron, S Fer-. To obviate these in- 

 congruities, and to lay before the chemical world a system 

 formed on mathematical principles and consistent with alge- 

 braic formula, appears to have been the object intended by 

 Professor Whewell in his paper : but in this he appears to me 

 to have failed, not for want of due consideration and ability, 

 but from the subject having been taken up in a mineralogical 

 rather than a chemical point of view; for the Professor him- 

 self acknowledges, speaking of the proposed system (p. 448), 

 that " the preceding notation is intended principally for the 

 purposes of mineralogy ;" and that "in the calculations of che- 

 mistry it would be necessary to have some additional contri- 

 vances. Thus it would be proper, as I have already observed, 

 to indicate the mode in which both the oxides and the acids 

 are formed from their bases by the addition of definite por- 

 tions of oxygen." On attentively reviewing this part of the 

 subject, 1 cannot help forming the conclusion, that these con- 

 tinual contrivances and contractions to suit different points 

 of reasoning, must involve the subject in interminable confu- 

 sion and difficulty. It would, I should consider, be far sim- 

 pler to adopt one entire set of symbols applicable to all 

 branches of chemical science, or to other sciences into which 

 chemical reasoning may enter. If some arrangement of this 

 kind is not fixed upon, the subject will be continually open to 

 variation, and the caprice of different persons according to 

 their several ideas of symbolic notation. 



