1826,] to Dr. Ure's Review. ^ 



students. I strongly suspect that a copy of my table found its 

 way to the Andersonian Institution, and that it was thought too 

 good a thing not to be appropriated. Whether this conjecture 

 be well or ill founded is of little consequence. The priority in 

 point of date is indisputably mine. Indeed had Dr. Ure evea 

 published his table before mine was drawn up, I would have 

 still submitted to the labour of the requisite experiments ; 

 because I had formed the resolution of subjecting every chemical 

 fact connected with my subject to a new and rigid examination, 

 whenever it was in my power to do so. Dr. Ure's table pub- 

 lished in the Annals of Philosophi/ for 1817 is everywhere erro- 

 neous to the amount of about 33 per cent. The author was 

 then a supporter of the old doctrine respecting chlorine and 

 muriatic acid ; and after having demonstrated the truth of his 

 opinion by most irrefragable experiments, which the late Dr. 

 Murray declared had been stolen from him, he turned to the 

 right about, and embraced a theory which he had just before 

 demonstrated to be false ! 



My table of the strength of nitric acid was drawn up during 

 the winter 1821-22. The greater number of the specific gravi- 

 ties on which it is founded were taken by Mr. Colquhoun, of 

 Glasgow, who was at that time my assistant, with a degree of 

 care and attention which could not easily be surpassed. I have, 

 therefore, great confidence in the accuracy of the table. Dr. 

 Ure's table I have never yet seen. It may be very accurate and 

 very useful. But had I been in possession of a copy of it, I 

 should still have considered it as requisite to draw up my own. 



It was this determination to take nothing on trust that was the 

 cause of the great length oftime which my experiments occupied. 

 They were all made with the most scrupulous attention to preci- 

 sion, and were all as accurate as the means in my power enabled 

 me to render them. When the substances were common, the 

 experiments were so frequently repeated, and so varied, that I 

 have the utmost confidence in the results. When the substances 

 were scarce, and when 1 was restricted to small quantities, the 

 risk of error was much greater. This was the case with palla- 

 dium, of which I possessed only a few grains, and respecting the 

 atomic weight of which I could not have acquired any satisfac- 

 tory knowledge, had not the previous experiments of Berzelius 

 enabled me to calculate in some measure beforehand. By the 

 liberality of Dr. Wollaston, I have been lately supphed with 

 some ounces of palladium. I have been enabled in consequence 

 to repeat and vary my experiments, and to extend them to 

 seveial other salts of that metal; and have had the satisfaction 

 to find that the atomic weights of palladium and its oxide, given 

 in my late work, are fully confirmed by these new investigations. 



I may notice here the Doctor's modest averment, that the 

 first analysis of oxalate ol' ammoftia Avas made by himself. The 



