42 Mr. Prideanx on Chemical Notation. 



writing it Aq, whereby this ambiguity was avoided. No 

 practical difficulty, however, is likely to result from the change, 

 until oxygenated water becomes a subject of more extensive 

 chemical interest. 



If this were all, the interposition or omission of the sign + 

 and the mode of expression of oxygen, would lead to little 

 embarrassment in the use of chemical symbols, (amongst 

 which the mathematical notation of Whewell and Brande can 

 hardly be classed) ; but in the specimen given (at p. 445), there 

 is confusion of another kind, originating, apparently, in the 

 specimen itself. The common ingredient oxygen, is repre- 

 sented in very different proportions. 



Berzelius and Graham are made to give it ; 



In the Soda. Acid. Water, 



as 2 5 24 



Rose and Johnstone ... 1 5 24 



Turner 1 1\ 24 



which, if ever written by chemists of such reputation, could 

 only have been by accident or inadvertence. Rose and John- 

 stone would doubtless place 2 before the symbol of soda, and 

 Turner would write 12 Aq, when they would clearly cor- 

 respond with Berzelius. Warrington's, as there printed, ap- 

 pears to signify quadroxide of potassium, soda, and 24 water. 



My name has no claim to a system of symbols, I having 

 always advocated those of Berzelius, and only modified a few 

 of them for a specific purpose, where they are accompanied 

 by an explanation. But nothing there resembles the quoted 

 specimen. Crystallized phosphate of soda stands on my scale 



So 4 Ph Aq™. 



Thus corrected, or rather restored, 



Rose 2NaO-fPO s +24HO. 



Turner So + P + 2| 0+ 12 aq. 



Johnstone P+So + 24H. 



My scale So^Ph^y 24 , they all harmonize with 



Berzelius Na 4 P + 24 H, and are a common 



language of science, applicable to all nations, and easily ac- 

 quired. 



Mr. Graham's symbol, Na 2 HP (the original subject of 

 Mr. Phillips's observations), shows that phosphate of soda, de- 

 prived of its water of crystallization, still retains an atom of 

 combined water. 





