CLARKE'S DISCOVERY. 199 



and philosophy pervades the entire big book of Clarke on 

 atomic weights, of 1897. 



The results published as the most probable values of the 

 atomic weights, according to S. P. Langley, the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution (1. c., p. Ill) are all dependent 

 upon this destruction of the old axiom. 



If the old axiom, that chemical combination or decom- 

 position has no effect on the weight of any particle of matter, 

 or of any atom, is true, then the learned secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution has certified to a gross systematic 

 error that infects one of the most pretentious works on exact 

 science which has ever been issued from that institution, 

 which certainly was not intended by its founder Smithson, 

 to produce or diffuse such stupendous errors. 



This great and fundamental axiom of all science up to 

 1897, is cooly and deliberately set aside in exact weights to 

 the third decimal on page 70 of that publication, in the fol- 

 lowing form : 



Ka rr 38.817, probable error, 0.0031 

 Cl =35-179, " " 0.0048 



Ka Cl = 74.025, " 0.0019 



Hence ) -we see a change due to chemical combination, an 

 increase of 0.029. 



We must leave out of consideration such remarkable 

 facts presented in these exact figures as that the compound 

 is known with much greater precision than its constituent 

 elements, etc. 



We must try to grapple with the increase in weight by 

 mere chemical combination. 



If the entire increase falls to the chlorine, it amounts to 

 0.03 on 35.5 or one on 1183. 



That is nearly one-tenth of one per cent! 



How important such a chemical fact is in astronomy, 

 both of the present world and of its probably nebulous past! 



Chemical decomposition will diminish weight, and, 

 therefore, gravitation the celestial orbits will widen ! 



Again, chemical combination taking place on a grand 



