The Experiments of Ramsay 



sophical views of science, took it up again and 

 supported it by many experiments ; he thought 

 himself justified in asserting that if the atom of 

 hydrogen is taken as unity the atoms of carbon, 

 nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur would weigh 

 exactly 12, 14, 16 and 32. How could such a 

 result be explained except on the assumption 

 that the elements are successive states of con- 

 densation of a single primitive matter, perhaps 

 of hydrogen itself? However, reality has once 

 more destroyed hypothesis; the development 

 of the resources of chemical analysis has per- 

 mitted a more accurate determination of atomic 

 weights, and the numbers given by Dumas have 

 had to be replaced by more complex numbers, 

 11.97, 14.01, 15.88, 31.98, so that the simplicity 

 just sighted vanishes, and with it the possibility 

 of founding on determinations of this kind any 

 argument for or against the unity of matter. 



The identical solicitude reappears in connec- 

 tion with another order of considerations. The 

 chemical species, as we know them, are far from 

 being fixed; they seem capable, like living species, 

 of departing in greater or less degree from a mean 



type. For each of these variations the physical 



67 



