100 



HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



[LECTURE vi. 



magnitudes of the numbers, I shall give his values, calculated 

 with reference to oxygen as standard with atomic weight = i6. 39 



Before I conclude the consideration of Berzelius' system, I 

 shall add a few words with respect to the formulae of hydro- 

 chloric acid and of ammonia. The atoms of these substances 

 are represented by HC1 and NH 3 , 40 showing that Berzelius did 

 not identify the conceptions of atom and equivalent in all cases, 

 although he employs the names indiscriminately. This might, 

 of course, be regarded as no real exception, since, generally 

 speaking, the double atoms HC1 and ^PK 3 are alone employed. 

 Naturally, it is difficult to give an exact account of the views of 

 one who is no longer alive ; but it is in every case necessary to 

 take the different periods into account. I believe then that 

 Berzelius, at first, and till about 1830, tried to extend the 

 law of volumes as far as possible (even to compounds as com- 

 pared with one another), and that this was a reason for assum- 



39 Berzelius, Jahresbericht 1828, 73 ; the values are also to be found 

 there calculated for H = i. ** Lehrbuch. Third Edition, 2, 187 and 344. 



