NITROGEN BY CHEMICAL MEANS. 183 



a real scientific spirit in the chemical mind of the last forty 

 years, when it was befogged by absolute faith in false methods 

 and imaginary precision, combined with absolute ignorance 

 of general principles of scientific reasoning, induces me to 

 take up the determination of the atomic weight of nitrogen 

 by chemical means entirely de novo, as if the determination 

 by density had not been made, nor that challenge taken up. 



And finally, as some of the would-be critics in high 

 station may not be able, nor even willing, to overcome the 

 inertia of their own mind, so thoroughly rooted in the false 

 doctrine, as it was in an earlier period in phlogiston I 

 shall, in this case, resort to their own familiar method of 

 dealing with the atomic weight determinations, singly and 

 directly, however much inferior that method is in scientific 

 force to our method of dealing exclusively with the imme- 

 diate results of experiment expressed in the analytical ratio. 



I shall, therefore, in this, the most noted case, make use 

 of the old method of procedure by comparing directly the 

 atomic weights immediately resulting from the individual 

 analytical data of the laboratory work " de la Chimie du 

 Laboratoire." See p. 22. 



In this case I shall, of course, follow the common 

 practice of stating my own calculations with the usual 

 degree of " precision " of three decimals. 



If I should not follow this modern humbug and fail to 

 give the customary imaginary decimals resulting by carrying 

 on calculation beyond the plainest limits of precision of 

 the experimental determinations, I would, of course, be 

 denounced by the dominant school, or rather by the infalli- 

 ble church of the false prophet Stas, as lacking in the first 

 essential requirement of modern exact science. 



But finally, what shall be the auxiliary data for these 

 calculations? Our standard atomic weights are, in this case, 

 out of the question ; for the fanatics of the church of Stas 

 would in toto reject all results based upon our own standards 

 and calculated by our own methods. 



We, therefore, must take the data of Stas and his school. 

 We shall take those presented with the show of highest 

 precision, and claiming the highest authority. 



