228 ARSENIC. 



Suppose we stop right here, and ask, what is the atomic 

 weight of arsenic resulting from this series of 10 determina- 

 tions, in the three groups : Nos. 1-5, 6-9, 10. 



Is it not plain as day-light, that this atomic weight is 75 

 exactly, to which all determinations approach as near as 

 possible ? 



Could anything more be demanded than such a close 

 approximation ? Does not such a gradually increasing series 

 give a fine chance for the study of the work, even though we 

 cannot always expect a perfect trajectory of errors (see True 

 At. Weights, 1894, p. 160). 



I look upon this experimental work due to friend Edgar 

 F. Smith as the best work in atomic weight determinations 

 produced in America. See my General Chemistry, 1897, 

 page 378. 



Lost in the Widerness of Error. 



Of course, m'y friend Edgar, has, like many others, bowed 

 to authority, to the great Chief Chemist at Washington, and 

 the real Chief Center of the American Chemical Society. 

 Having bowed down and competed for minute u probable 

 errors" with the consequent "high weight" in the hands 

 of the Chief Chemist, and a place in the Smithsonian 

 Constants, he has forsaken the God of Truth and committed 

 abominations. Clarke, p. 263. 



Under these circumstances, Edgar F. Smith was com- 

 pelled to use the atomic weights of the Chief Chemist, and 

 thus he falsified his own good chemical 'work by the use of the 

 false auxiliary values of Clarke. 



" Ye cannot serve both God and Mammon," it was said 

 in that old book which remains true to-day in human life 

 and even in science. 



Therefore, the atomic weight of arsenic is not 74.9158 

 with a probable error of 0.00222, as J. G. Hibbs in his 

 thesis (p. 22) of 1896, reports to his Professor, Edgar F. 

 Smith. 



This value is false, resulting from the reduction of good 

 laboratory work by the false atomic weights of the Smith- 



