VI PROLOGUE. 



raised, namely: Is the material universe composed of one 

 single substance or of many chemical elements? 



Our work shows that the unity of matter is established 

 with greater certainty than any other principle of scientific 

 philosophy. 



By our true and absolute atomic weights, the almost 

 universal practice of falsifying the results of chemical 

 analyses by reducing them with false atomic weights, will 

 be stopped. 



All chemical analyses made for many years in our 

 Government laboratories have been so falsified by the 

 use of the false Smithsonian Atomic Weights of Clarke. 

 The question of scientific morals is this : Are official 

 leaders in science, at home and abroad, presenting to and 

 endorsing before the world, scientific data and doctrines, 

 which by a little careful examination, they ought to recog- 

 nize themselves as totally false and contradicted by experi- 

 ment and observation, and which have been demonstrated 

 false in my publications specified? 



The question of scientific administration is naturally 

 primarily addressed to the citizens of the United States, 

 as follows: 



(< THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 



founded for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowl- 

 edge among men per orbem," and 

 governed by a Board of Directors, appointed by the 



CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

 which has accepted the Trust Fund of the English- 

 man Smithson for such an Institution; 



is it right and proper 



for the Secretary of that Institution to issue and 



indorse a work which can only Increase and Diffuse 



ERROR and FALSE SCIENCE among men per orbem? 



The proofs, that the work of Clarke specified is of such 



a kind are here most respectfully submitted in this book. 



In these United States we never had a State Church, 



and we trust we shall never have that which has been one 



of the greatest curses to Europe ; only by fearful sacrifices 



of which the thirty years' war was merely an episode 



Europe has partly relieved itself thereof. 



But will a STATE SCIENCE be less harmful than a STATE 

 CHURCH ? 



