THE ATOMIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



419 



later date, appeared similarly averse to admit the physical 

 existence of atoms in the older sense, and warned chemists 

 against the introduction of unnecessary and unproven 

 hypotheses. Even Gerhardt, as late as 1856, opposed 

 the idea that chemical formulae could express the actual 

 constitution of substances : they were merely a convenient 

 symbolism, a kind of alphabet, by which reactions between 

 different elements or compounds could be conveniently 

 described, and the proportional weights of the constituents 

 or the products could be ascertained. 1 Accordingly, it was 

 also maintained that formulae could be written in very 

 different ways, expressive of the different processes and 

 reactions which had in special cases to be considered. 2 



Although, therefore, chemical research was governed all 

 through the century by the atomic view of matter, it does 



he says : " The word atom, which 

 can never be used without involving 

 much that is purely hypothetical, 

 is often intended to be used to 

 express a simple fact. . . . There 

 can be no doubt that the words 

 definite proportions, equivalents, 

 primes, &c., which did and do ex- 

 press fully all the facts of what is 

 usually called the atomic theory in 

 chemistry, were dismissed because 

 they were not expressive enough, 

 and did not say all that was in the 

 mind of him who used the word 

 atom in their stead ; they did not 

 express the hypothesis as well as 

 the fact." He then enlarges on the 

 necessity of the atomic view, and 

 expresses his preference for the form 

 which Boscovich had given to it over 

 " the more usual notion," as accord- 

 ing to the latter " matter consists 

 of atoms and intervening space," 

 whilst with the former " matter is 

 everywhere present, and there is no 

 intervening space unoccupied by it " 



(ibid., pp. 290, 291). It is evidently 

 the objection to action at a dis- 

 tance, uncommunicated action, 

 which is implied in the ordinary 

 atomic view of matter, that makes 

 Faraday jealous of the term atom. 

 This objection was quite foreign 

 to the chemists abroad who in the 

 middle of the century elaborated 

 the atomic view of matter and na- 

 ture ; it belongs to a different direc- 

 tion of thought, which will occupy 

 us in a later chapter. 



1 In his 'Traite" de Chimie or- 

 ganique,' which he brought out as 

 a continuation of the French edi- 

 tion of Berzelius's ' Treatise of In- 

 organic Chemistry ' in the years 

 1853 to 1856. See Kopp, ' Ent- 

 wickelung der Chemie,' pp. 747, 

 796, 800, 809, 819, 834. 



2 Even the combining weight 

 or equivalent of an element, that 

 datum upon which since Eichter 

 and Dalton the whole system of 

 chemistry has been built up, was 



