ERRORS DUE TO FALSE DATA. 35 



boron we shall give ample data on these astounding and 

 most characteristic points. 



There is not a shadow of doubt but the values crowned 

 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris are not true to nature, 

 and this fact was fully established by my papers printed in 

 the Comptes Rendus of that academy six months before 

 conferring that prize. 



Armand Gautier and J. Aloy. 



To what extent such erroneous data (auxiliary atomic 

 weights) will falsify the results of the chemical work, we 

 will show by one single example. 



This case we shall also take from one of the highest 

 sources of chemical science, from the noted laboratory of 

 Professor Armand Gautier, of the University of Paris, where 

 Mr. J. Aloy has made the research, the results of which 

 Professor Armand Gautier himself presented to the Acade- 

 my of Science on March 4, 1901 (C. R. 132, p. 551-553). 



In this research the atomic weight of Uranium is deter- 

 mined by a process of ignition and combustion, the nitrate 

 giving free nitrogen gas and uranic oxide. The nitrogen is 

 measured, the oxide is weighed. 



No data of weights are given. The volume of nitrogen, 

 and the atomic weight of Uranium resulting are stated. 



This is a very improper way; the direct data of the 

 quantities determined must be given to admit the research 

 to the records for any use whatsoever. 



No critical examination is possible in the absence of the 

 statement of the real weights determined. Moissan, in his 

 determinations of the atomic weight of fluorine has also 

 omitted these essential data; hence his determinations could 

 not be introduced into the general record. See True Atomic 

 Weights, 1894, p. 195. 



It is to be hoped that this singular practice of Moissan 

 and Gautier, will not become general in France. It would 

 certainly blot out French work from the record. 



In the absence of the necessary weights of the two 

 quantities determined in each experiment, we are compelled 

 to test the results given by an inverse process. 



