l8 THE ERRORS OF PRECISION. 



The Double Distilled Fraud. 



It follows without saying that all estimates of the scien- 

 tific value of series of atomic weight determinations depend- 

 ent upon the minuteness of this so-called probable error are 

 not only double distilled frauds, but the impertinent, arro- 

 gant imposition of an ignorant mechanical calculator who 

 blindly applies a mathematical method he does not under- 

 stand to the work of chemists he does not comprehend. We 

 refer to the author of the Constants of Nature, which are 

 neither constant nor of nature. 



I shall not go into further particulars at this point by 

 giving striking instances of such absurd judgements pro- 

 nounced on work done by American Chemists, but shall 

 point out a few glaring instances as we go along in the sum- 

 mary of the atomic weight determinations made during the 

 nineteenth century. 



The Law of Probability. 



As to the Laiv of Probability here referred to, I may be 

 permitted to state, that the same has been independently 

 established by me in a strictly experimental manner as pub- 

 lished in my u School Laboratory of Physical Science, vol. 

 II, pp. 28-38; Iowa City, 1872," and also in my " Rainfall 

 Laws, reduced from Twenty Years of Observarion," pp. 43- 

 56, Washington, D. C., Weather Bureau, 1893. 



Fully half a million experiments were made by my stu- 

 dents. These experiments completely established my sim- 

 ple and practical, graphic method of applying the proba- 

 bility curve, which otherwise had only been accessible by 

 means of difficult methods of higher mathematics. 



This remark is here appended to prevent improper 

 inferences and not unlikely insinuations. 



All Dice are Loaded. 



How sensitive some very common operations are to 

 minute influences readily overlooked by us, we may see in 

 the throwing of dice. 



