PROLOGUE. 



absolute conviction of duty to truth and science induced 

 and sustained me in this work. 



I found even enormous errors of reduction to vacuum 

 committed by Stas, but overlooked by all his recalculators. 

 I discovered systematic errors in his syntheses of silver 

 and lead nitrate, which make it impossible to use these 

 vaunted syntheses for any atomic weight determination 

 whatever. The silver chloride process is unfit for such use 

 because it takes a sort of body-guard of salt to keep the 

 silver chloride down as a precipitate. 



These results of mine were published in the Comptes 

 Rendus of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, from 1892 

 to 1894, and more fully in my TRUE ATOMIC WEIGHTS 

 of 1894. 



Some of the most eminent Chemists and Physicists have 

 admitted these critical results, which have also been taught 

 in one of the most famous Universities of the world, and 

 have been published with approval in chemical periodicals 

 and special treatises. 



In 1897, the Smithsonian Institution issued a second 

 edition of Clarke's Recalculations, in which my work is 

 grossly misrepresented. These false atomic weights of 

 Clarke and the Smithsonian Institution have recently been 

 forced upon the attention of the Committee of Revision 

 of the United States Pharmacopoeia for adoption. 



I have, therefore, deemed it advisable to present my 

 work in the simplest possible, most elementary form, so 

 that every one interested in the great scientific and public 

 questions involved may understand the issue. 



Since the false science is backed by Government 

 Authority and published by the means of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and sent free through the registered mail by 

 official frank, I have endeavored to put this work at an 

 almost nominal price within the reach of all. 



This work is herewith most respectfully submitted to 

 the General Scientific Public, which I believe is vitally 

 interested in this scientific question itself, and in the 

 questions of scientific morals and administration involved. 



The question of science is one of the greatest ever 



