154 ABSOLUTE ATOMIC WEIGHT. 



or in the results obtained by H. Gautier comparable in value 

 to the work of Ramsay which this is intended to supplant or 

 to support. 



The one exception referred to is the carbide process, 

 which was borrowed from pp. 175-176 of my True Atomic 

 Weights, 1894, in the hands of Moissan, and favorably 

 known throughout the scientific circles at Paris, as I could 

 readily prove by fac-simile letters of prominent members of 

 several sections of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. 



Even if Moissan had overlooked this most important part 

 of my book, he and his section of chemistry must have been 

 reminded of it by the very pointed second paragraph of my 

 paper in the Comptes Rendus T. 131, pp. 1712-1714; 1900, 

 published six months before the section reported to the 

 academy in December, 1900. 



This entire communication of mine " On the True 

 Atomic Weight of Boron" is printed at the close of this 

 chapter, in literal translation from my French original, 

 printed June, 1900, in the Comptes Rendus. 



In thus ignoring my work, while making use of my 

 method, the section has not treated me as dishonorably, as 

 it has two of its own leading members whom three of said 

 members have followed to the grave barely a couple of 

 years ago. 



La Pleiade de Chimistes d'Alsace. 



These two great chemists, Schiitzenberger and Friedel, 

 together with Wiirtz and the officially so much persecuted 

 * Gerhardt, constitute that famous " Pleiade of chemists of 

 Alsace" (and, therefore, German in real origin as well as in 

 name) so generally counted in as French chemists, for 

 example, by Lemoine in his admirable eloge of Friedel, 

 spoken on July 23, 1900, before the academy. 



Why should the public teachings of these great men be 

 treated with contempt by Moissan and his present associates? 



And if my work were unworthy, if these last chemists 

 of the " Pleiade of chemists of Alsace " had been mistaken 

 in their public teaching at the University of Paris, and in 



* See his biography, by his son and Grimaux, published in 1900. 



