THE CHALLENGE OF STAS. 175 



per hectogramme of silver used in the first series. True 

 Atomic Weights, pp. 82-83. 



The readers of any mathematical sense will understand 

 and appreciate this very easy and compact way of procedure, 

 as it were en-bloc; and they will also be astonished that this 

 method has not been used by our modern chemists. 



How crude the methods in use actually are, passes belief; 

 we may, for example, point to the delightful formulae used 

 at the great Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 see page 16 of the Thesis for Ph. D. by Willet Lepley 

 Hardin, 1896. 



If no blunder is made in the use of such a set of 

 formulas, it surely is no fault of the said formulae. 



For No. 8, Stas allows 30 mgr. only, while this rule would 

 give 42 mgr. Hence the values of Stas for No. 8, are placed 

 too low. We have not changed them, but must insist that 

 this error be kept in mind, when the final curves shall be 

 considered in detail. The error amounts to 40 per cent on the 

 reduction to vacuum. 



There can be no question about this very grave error in 

 the work of Stas. We dare not overlook it. To correct for 

 buoyancy in this 'way is to falsify the record of experiment. It 

 is fraud. 



To commit an error of forty per cent on so simple a 

 calculation as the reduction to vacuum, is in effect just as 

 bad as an actual falsification of the experimental data of Stas. 



His famous re -calculators, from Leipzig to Washington, 

 have failed to see this palpable error; their spectacles were 

 of so deep a Stasian haze that they may be excused. 



But we must remember that the values No. 8 are recorded 

 too low by this error of Stas. 



We shall simply point it out here, because for 200 

 grammes (No. 8), we have determinations Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 

 sufficiently nearby, corresponding to about 150 and 300 

 grammes of silver used. 



But the case is very different for Synthesis No. 6, this 

 being the most important, involving the highest amount of 

 silver used, namely, 400 grammes; it is therefore the last 



