CARBON. DUMAS. 103 



potassium hydrate. Journal Chemical Society 1897, pp. 



550-564. 



Taking all the determinations made for " carbon " this 

 chemist now applies an additional correction, and finds as 

 final u mean value" C = 12.0008, which even Ostwald 

 concedes to bring the deviation from the " round number" 

 12 into the region of the errors of experiment. Ztsch. 24, 

 P. 3775 1897. 



This apparent " correction " has probably induced the 

 Three German Chemists (Ostwald, Landolt and Seubert) 

 to put C = 12.00 in the table of the atomic weights adopted 

 by the German Chemical Society in 1898. 



But we most respectfully beg to object to this correction 

 made en-bloc for " carbon " and for this additional mud- 

 dling the atomic weight of carbon and any such tt rounding 

 off " to 12.00. 



In thejirst place, we deem all such minute " corrections " 

 applied half a century after the publication of great stand- 

 ard determinations of very doubtful propriety. There is 

 another gnat strained at, and another drove of camels to be 

 swallowed. 



If an error has been committed, let the tl correction " be 

 made on new work, but leave the results of the old masters 

 " uncorrected" and undisturbed. 



In the second place it is not correct to apply any correc- 

 tion to combinations of all sorts of so-called carbon for the 

 purpose of establishing the atomic weight of carbon. Here 

 comes that drove of camels, longing to be swallowed. 



Not even natural graphite can be used for this purpose, 

 and the application of artificial graphite, is out of the 

 question. Already Dumas declared that graphite could not 

 be weighed with absolute precision. Compare p. 48. 



To include the combustions of " sugar Coal" and " paper 

 coal" of Van der Plaats, 1885, in the experimental data for 

 the determination of the atomic weight of carbon is chem- 

 ical folly. 



To apply " corrections " to work undertaken with mate- 

 rial which is not fit to be weighed with precision, is absurd. 



