178 STASIAN FOLLY AND FRAUD. 



the values of Marignac (fused nitrate), forming approxi- 

 mately a straight line running from the origin O to P. We 

 shall not here enter upon details, as we wish exclusively to 

 consider the work of Stas. 



In examining this very instructive diagram, in which the 

 ordinates are the atomic weight (excess above 14) of nitro- 

 gen, and the abscissae are the amount of silver used (in 

 grammes) and remembering that all determinations are 

 marked by the proper number, we notice : 



I. The determination No. 7 rejected by Stas is far below 

 the value for 200 grammes; hence his reason for rejecting it 

 must have been a good one. 



II. The " dried " nitrate cannot have been of quite uni- 

 form character. We see " No. 2 dried " much higher above 

 fused, than No. 3; this error of Stas we have practically 

 eliminated by taking the mean of these two determinations, 

 which is marked 2, 3 on the diagram. 



The difference in No. 3 is seen to be only one-fourth of 

 that in No. 2, between the dried and the fused nitrate. This 

 constitutes an error of 300% for No. 2 as compared to No. 3. 



III. Another such greatly differing "drying" we see in 

 Nos. 8 and the two determinations 4, 5. These last two 

 were both made with 300 grammes of silver, and the results 

 were almost identical. 



In this point, 4, 5, we notice the difference between 

 "dried" and "fused" less than half what it is for No. 8. 

 An error of 100% for No. 8, as compared to Nos. 4, 5. 



IV. We furthermore notice that this No. 8 lies compar- 

 atively Zoiv, but we expected that, because we have above 

 shown, that Stas committed the grave error of adding 30 

 milligrammes only, instead of the true value of 42 milli- 

 grammes for reduction to vacuum an error of 12 milli- 

 grammes. 



If I had " corrected ' also this error of Stas, the true 

 value No. 8 fused would have fallen almost exactly on the 

 full drawn curve. 



V. The great error of Stas in No. 6 ive have sho~vn to 

 amount to 66 milligrammes^ too high, in this case. The 



