272 EBELMEN. 



And now, when we test these determinations by our 

 standard which has been firmly established we find the 

 work of Zimmermann four times as far off as that of 

 Ebelmen, determined almost half a century earlier. 



Out upon these " Official Scientists " that use their 

 position in Washington, as do the worst politicians, to build 

 up a following in the American Chemical Society and to 

 subdue the American Association Adv. Sc. 



The work of Wertheim, 1843, consisted in igniting the 

 double acetate of Ur and Na, giving Na Uranate. The 

 starting salt is too complex; atomic weight 472, entering 

 twice, or as 944. Resulting Naa O? Ur2=638. Atomic 

 ratio 0.67 585, change 7 high. Results: 



Wertheim, 1843, 3 Det., 546 509; 37. Mean 62 low. 

 Zimmermann, 1886, 4 Det., 557 540; 17. " 33 low. 



What is particularly striking is the very low value 7 of 

 the change per o. i ; i. e. in our language, the process is 

 atomically very dull. 



The oxalate method of Wertheim is still inferior. No 

 reliable results can be obtained by chosing too complex a 

 compound as starting substance, and working it towards a 

 very blunt ratio. 



The recently proposed method of Armand Gautier, 

 worked by J. Aloy, has already been mentioned because the 

 author has withheld the most essential data of observation, 

 and only stated the results found by adopting the false value 

 N = 14.04. See pp. 35-38. 



But we are given the weight of a cubic centimeter of 

 nitrogen, according to Lord Rayleigh to the millionth of 

 a gramme and less, by simply pointing off this great experi- 

 menters result per Litre. This looks very fine, indeed 

 " exact science " truly. 



The method itself is very inferior, since the weight of 

 nitrogen is multiplied by 17 and a fraction; this magnifies 

 the errors of nitrogen determination by seventeen ! 



Indeed, I doubt if Armand Gautier would have presented 

 such a method if he still had the privilege of talking over 



