34 THE ERRORS OF PRECISION. 



with the Clarkian atomic weights for Xa and Ag " em- 

 ployed." This amounts to one per cent on the atomic 

 weight an enormous error! 



It is passing strange that good chemists continue to 

 reduce their weighings by such data and coolly recognize 

 the discrepancy of more than one-tenth in final means 

 though they have been giving single determinations to the 

 thousandth. 



Have such chemists never felt the necessity of inquiring 

 into the cause of such discrepancies, exceeding hundredfold 

 the supposed accuracy of their own chemical work? 



H. Moissan and H. Gautier. 



The atomic weight of boron has also more recently been 

 determined in the laboratory of the University of Paris, 

 under the direction of Moissan, by Henri Gautier, which 

 determination has been greatly honored by the Academy 

 of Sciences of Paris, granting the Vaillant Prize to the 

 young chemist upon the recommendation of the entire 

 section of chemistry, for which section Moissan was the 

 spokesman (rapporteur). 



In the reduction of his often admirable laboratory work, 

 Henry Gautier uses "the table of atomic weights published 

 in 1898 by Landolt, Ostwald and Seubert" throughout his 

 reductions. 



Consequently, he will have all his chemical determina- 

 tions infected by the errors of these atomic weights of the 

 German Chemical Society. 



Under Moissan, good French laboratory work is spoilt or 

 falsified, by reducing it by German atomic weights. 



That such is the case I have shown in my two articles 

 communicated to the Academy in the sessions of June 18 

 and July 2, 1900, which were published in full in the Comptes 

 Rendus. 



That a great Academy of Science grants a valuable prize 

 for work which has been shown in its own publications to 

 give false values is a rather important fact to take note of. 



When we come to the study of the atomic weight of 



