60 ABSOLUTE ATOMIC WEIGHT. 



Surely, if we establish, from the actual analyses, the exact 

 value of such departure, we shall have determined the true 

 atomic weight for any given element. 



To most chemists this may seem to be an indirect method, 

 a round about method; but a moments consideration will 

 convince them that this method is not only direct, but the 

 only mathematical method applicable to this problem. 



Instead of complicating the calculation, as might be 

 supposed, this method simplifies all calculations to a won- 

 derful degree. 



In fact, it may be truly said, that the direct solution of 

 this problem of determining the true atomic weights is 

 impossible. In all fairness, the chemists who for a century 

 have tried their best by this method and now see the whole 

 subject in a muddle and no single atomic weight truly 

 known, ought to be ready to concede that their direct method- 

 has been a failure. 



Now, wherein is our indirect method, if the chemists 

 will call it such, simpler than the direct method thus far 

 employed by the chemists of the past century ? 



It is due to \hefact that the deviations from the standard 

 values being known to be small quantities, the method of 

 calculation becomes extremely simple, because second and 

 higher powers of these deviations can be neglected. 



Method of Procedure. 



Let us now see how this our method can be applied in 

 the most simple manner for the determination of the abso- 

 lute and true atomic weight of the chemical elements. 



By the analytical operation of the chemist, the element 

 is weighed in two different combinations, the one having 

 been changed into the other without loss or gain as near as 

 possible. The weighings are exact, as near as can be. 



By the series of analytical determinations, that is, by the 

 laboratory work, we obtain as many analytical ratios as 

 determinations have been made; namely, in each single 

 case we divide the weight of the substance taken, s, by the 

 weight or the product formed, p ; the quotient is our ana- 



