IOO ABSOLUTE ATOMIC WEIGHT. 



Hardin's Electrolyses. 



His electrolyses of mercuric oxide have been withdrawn. 

 See p. 30, supra. 



Those of silver and mercury compounds in the same cir- 

 cuit, have also been destroyed by te selection;" see Hardin's 

 Thesis, 1896, pp. 38, 39. 



There remain his electrolyses of the chloride, bromide 

 and cyanide of mercury, published in that Thesis. 



There also remains an ugly suspicion of selection, of 

 course. His results are remarkably concordant, and sup- 

 port the Stasian values of Clarke which need all support 

 they can get from any quarter. 



But surely, no one can accuse this hopeful young Stasian 

 to have "selected" anything in favor of our heterodox 

 atomic weights. Let us therefore, examine the three series 

 he has not withdrawn, after publication. 



He always weighs the substance and the metal. We will 

 state his results in three lines, giving our atomic ratio first: 



Atomic Ratio. Comp'd. Analyt. Results. 



o-55 555 Bromide. 565 548; 17. Mean o. 

 0.73801 Chloride. 838 820; 18. Mean 28 high. 



0-79365 Cyanide. 34 2 337; 5- Mean 26 low. 



Taking the entire set of 10 determinations each for these 

 three compounds, bona fide, they confirm our Hgm2oo 

 exactly, in a most remarkable manner. 



For while the mean analytical excess for the bromide is 

 zero, those for the other two compounds almost exactly 

 balance. 



The mean analytical excess of all thirty determinations 

 is practically zero. Our standard atomic weight is also the 

 absolute, true atomic weight, Hg = 200 exactly, according 

 to the 30 experiments of Hardin, if they are bona fide deter- 

 minations. 



If so, we have an interesting case of constant errors 

 determined by the nature of the substance operated upon. 

 For the bromide, as might be expected, the constant error is 



