250 Mr. II. Phillips's Additional Observations 



mony, it is to me of that variety which has been characterized 

 as " all discord." And it is curious that Johnstone's symbol 

 is the same when mutilated by me as when mended by Mr. 

 Prideaux ; and it is still more curious that with my view it was 

 correctly employed, while with the no mending of Mr. Prideaux 

 it is wrong. Now that I, who have never written symbols, nor 

 read them when I could avoid it, should exhibit symptoms 

 of a novice in attempting to employ them, ought to excite 

 no surprise ; but that a professed admirer of a system — and 

 which, though perfect, he has attempted to improve — should 

 err in correcting my blunders, is surely indicative of "some- 

 thing rotten" in the system itself: and I shall now show that 

 Mr. Prideaux, in attempting to correct, or rather to restore 

 three symbols, has committed four errors; for I maintain that, 

 instead of the notation as above given by him, crystallized 

 phosphate of soda would have been symbolized as follows : by 

 Rose 2NaO + P0 5 + 24HO. 



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



Johnstone... P + 2So + 24H. 



From the use of the words " my scale," I find that Mr. 

 Prideaux has published a scale of equivalents: and I regret 

 that I did not remember it. My idea of his notation was 

 taken from a paper already quoted, on account of the praise 

 bestowed upon the system of Berzelius, and in which the only 

 innovation that he professes to have made in it is that of 

 " writing salifiable bases in inclined letters." In that paper 

 Mr. Prideaux had no occasion to use the symbol either for 

 phosphoric acid or soda; but as he employs S for sulphur 



and K for potash, I concluded, after what had been stated, 

 that he also admitted with Berzelius P for phosphorus 



and N for soda. I find, however, I was wrong ; and I again 

 express my regret at not remembering Mr. Prideaux's scale, 

 for his accumulated innovations would have added variety and 

 confusion to my illustrations of both. 



Although Mr. Prideaux has so greatly altered Berzelius's 

 notation, that, as the reader will perceive, all the constituents 

 of his scale in crystallized phosphate of soda are totally dissi- 

 milar, yet Mr. Prideaux has observed that "one should be well 

 convinced, before attempting innovations, that their effects 

 [defects?] and inconveniences will be less than those of what 

 they are proposed to supersede." I cannot discover the ad- 

 vantage which So possesses over Na, Ph above P, or Aq 24 over 

 24 H ; and yet Mr. Prideaux has made these alterations in 



