ANNALS 
OF 
PHILOSOPHY. 
NOVEMBER, 1815. 
ARTICLE I. 
On the Relation between the Specific Gravities of Bodies in their 
Gaseous State and the Weights of their Atoms. 
THE author of the following essay submits it to the public with 
the greatest diffidence ; for though he has taken the utmost pains to 
arrive at the truth, yet he has not that confidence in his abilities as 
an experimentalist as to induce him to dictate to others far superior 
to himself in chemical acquirememts and fame. He trusts, however, 
that its importance will be seen, and that some one will undertake 
to examine it, and thus verify or refute its conclusions. If these 
should be proved erroneous, still new facts may be brought to light, 
or old ones better established, by the investigation ; but if they 
should be verified, a new and interesting light will be thrown upon 
the whole science of chemistry. 
It will perhaps be necessary to premise that the observations 
_ about to be offered are chiefly founded on the doctrine of volumes 
as first generalized by M. Gay-Lussac ; and which, as far as the 
author is aware at least, is now universally admitted by chemists. 
On the Specific Gravities of the Elementary Gases. 
1, Oxygen and Axote-—Chemists do not appear to have consi- 
dered atmospheric air in the light of a compound formed upon 
chemical principles, or at least little stress has been laid upon this 
circumstance. It has, however, been long known to be constituted 
”y bulk of four volumes of azote and one volume of oxygen; and 
if we consider the atom of oxygen as 10, and the atom of azote as 
17°5, it will be found by weight to consist of one atom of oxygen 
and two atoms of azote, or per cent. of 
Vor, VI, N° V. x 
