156 ABSOLUTE ATOMIC WEIGHT. 



His dishonorable treatment of his dead colleagues, the 

 last of the Pleiade of Chemists of Alsace, I leave to his living 

 confreres to deal with. 



How utterly ignorant of all chemistry, not merely manual 

 in character, Moissan must be, is palpably evident in the 

 prominence given in his Rapport, accentuating the " prob- 

 able errors" having been determined and ll discussed,'" 1 

 when as a matter of fact he thei^eby shows that he does not 

 even know how that useless humbug (see pp. n-iS) is cal- 

 culated; see p. 363 of the " Annales " above cited, where 

 the essential coefficient (nearly %) is omitted, so that all 

 the " probable errors" calculated and discussed are 50 per 

 cent, too high! 



I hasten to conclude " cette affaire" by stating in as plain 

 words as I can command, that: 



I. The analytical work of Ramsay for the determina- 

 tion of the atomic weight of boron is conceived in the spirit 

 of Berzelius and was carried out in a manner equally high, 

 and that as a matter of fact, it permits us to establish the 

 atomic weight of boron, as we have shown. 



II. The three methods proposed by Moissan are either 

 notoriously dull analytically (sulphide) or are contrary to 

 the Berzelian spirit (substance not weighable, use of silver 

 process, etc.) and give enormous departures of from 5 to 12 

 hundredths on the atomic weight of only n; 



III. My carbide method is good, gives excellent results, 

 but has been neglected in favor of his own miserable 

 methods; and Moissan has insulted the memory of his late 

 colleagues as well as myself by taking my method without 

 giving due credit therefor. 



Friedel and Schutzenberger. 



That I have a perfect right to connect these honored 

 names of the "Last of the Pleiade of Alsace" with my 

 own, will require no word of proof in the circles of la Haute 

 Academie des Sciences, which I honor and respect most highly, 

 and from many leading members of which I hold tokens of 

 regard and encouragement; but for the benefit of the general 



