126 ABSOLUTE ATOMIC WEIGHT. 



Evidently, Sir William Crookes, in 1896, does not under- 

 stand scientific chemistry any better than did Mr. William 

 Crookes, in 1873, when he failed to understand the scientific 

 signification of his own very good laboratory work. 



Just let us see for a moment! 



The synthesis of thallium nitrate effected agrees to the 

 thousandth of a unit with our standard atomic weights. 



In this formula of the nitrate enters the standard atomic 

 weight for nitrogen as only 14 exactly. 



But Sir William Crookes and nearly all chemists of the 

 world adopt the Stasian Value N =z 14.04. They decide it 

 by vote. They denounce me personally for showing Stas to 

 be in error. They would burn me as a chemical heretic, if 

 they could. 



Now a very simple calculation with N:rz 14.1, shows that 

 the atomic ratio will be 49 high for this change of only o.i 

 in the atomic weight of nitrogen. 



As a matter of fact, the mean of the 9 determinations of 

 Mr. William Crookes is only % a unit low in the fifth place, 

 that is only one hundredth of the tenth or one thousandth, 

 making nitrogen one thousandth low or 13.999. 



If Sir William will take pencil in hand and read the 

 preceding paragraph a few times carefully, I hope he will 

 understand that what we therein assert is a very simple state- 

 ment of fact, resting entirely upon the exquisite laboratory 

 work of Mr. William Crookes, and requiring only the 

 rudiments of mental arithmetic. 



But then the value of Stas N= 14.04 is forty times as far 

 from the truth as the limit fixed by the laboratory work of 

 Mr. William Crookes, in 1873. 



And if the value N =. 14.04 of Stas is wrong, the value 

 Ag zzz 107.92 falls to the ground ; in fact, the entire mystic- 

 ally muddy System of Stas* Atomic Weights is totally 

 annihilated by Mr. William Crookes. For all values of Stas 

 are mutually tied together; if any one is proved false, they 

 are all proved false. 



This shows plainly, that Sir William Crookes does not 

 know 'what he is talking- about when he, in 1896, comes to the 

 rescue of Stas and his School; he forgets that a certain 



