IRON. SVANBERG. 9! 



If any process or reaction is proposed for atomic weight 

 determination, and upon trial has given absurd results in 

 conflict with rational and exact methods, or if it gives results 

 which in themselves by an excessive range or by systematic 

 variations or in any other way show the process to be unfit 

 for such a purpose, is not the only thing left to be done, the 

 exclusion of the same, and of its results, from the body of 

 the science with a simple note of the fact? 



To suppose for a moment that by any hocus-pocus of a 

 mathematical or enigmatical character any person can throw 

 notoriously false results obtained by irrational process, 

 together with such condemned by their own originators as 

 false and worthless, into a pot or mill and turn some 

 mechanical crank and draw out true and reliable results is 

 giving an exhibition of the worst possible characters of a 

 a scientific crank. 



The mere fact that such a scientific crank is the Chief 

 Chemist of the U. S. Department of the Interior has no 

 bearing on the chemical question involved. 



And to offer to the scientific public a collection of false 

 methods and false data obtained thereby in the garb of truth 

 and in the form of scientific language and formula, is a 

 crime against nature and against scientific morals. 



And the institution founded for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men per orbem, that would print, pub- 

 lish and disseminate such rotten abominations needs first of 

 all a thorough driving out of the guilty, followed by a most 

 thorough disinfection and renewal of the entire institution. 



III. THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF IRON. SVANBERG. 



The determination of the true atomic weight of iron we 

 also owe to Berzelius and his school. 



With that true insight into the conditions of quantitative 

 accuracy of chemical processes, Berzelius already in 1809, 

 had selected the very best process possible for iron, namely, 

 the change of the metal into its sesquioxide and the reduc- 

 tion of the latter. 



