THE ATOMIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



393 



The merit of having made this attempt belongs to one 

 who approached chemistry entirely from the mathematical 

 side, who wrote the first chemical book with a title point- 

 ing directly to measurements, but who perhaps spoilt his 

 work by giving way to the fascination which regular 

 numerical and geometrical arrangements have again and 

 again exercised over philosophical inquirers. Jeremias 

 Benjamin Bichter a name possessed of no popular cele- 

 brity published in 1792 to 1794, in three parts, his 

 " Stcechiometry, or the art of measuring chemical ele- 

 ments." l From his data, Fischer calculated in 1802 the 



7. 



writings of Laplace and his school. 

 Chemical affinity was to be co- 

 ordinated with what he called astro- 

 nomical attraction ; both were to 

 be ultimately the same physical 

 property ; they acted differently, 

 because in the case of gravitation 

 the dimensions were so large, that 

 the form, distances, and peculiar 

 properties of the molecules had no 

 influence. It was an attempt to 

 introduce the astronomical view of 

 matter into molecular physics, and 

 to base chemistry upon this view. 

 Berthollet adhered to the corpus- 

 cular theory of heat against Rum- 

 ford, who had just propounded his 

 opinion that heat is not a consti- 

 tuent part of bodies ; and he main- 

 tained that chemical affinity was a 

 function of the mass of bodies as 

 was astronomical attraction. The 

 germ of truth in Berthollet's views, 

 which were approved by Laplace, 

 but cast into oblivion under the 

 influence of Proust and Richter's 

 theory of fixed proportions, has 

 in recent times been shown by 

 Lothar Meyer (' Modern Theories of 

 Chemistry,' Introduction), and by 

 Ostwald ('Allgemeine Chemie,' vol. 

 ii. p. 557, 1st ed., also 'Die Energie 

 und ihre Wandluugen,' Leipzig, 



1888, p. 20). If the astronomical 

 view of molecular phenomena pre- 

 vented Berthollet from accepting 

 Proust's doctrine of fixed proportions 

 and definite combinations, Richter 

 injured his own reputation by ad- 

 hering to the nomenclature of the 

 phlogiston theory after it had been 

 discarded by French chemists, and 

 in Germany after Klaproth's deter- 

 minations in 1792. The oxygen 

 theory of combustion of Lavoisier 

 got such a firm hold on the minds 

 of Continental chemists that the 

 labours of those who, like Cavendish 

 in England and Richter in Germany, 

 put forward important discoveries 

 in the language and on the principles 

 of the older theory, were temporarily 

 forgotten. See Kopp, ' Entwickel- 

 ung der Chemie,' p. 271, &c. 



1 Stojchiometry comes from the 

 Greek ra <rroi\fia., the constituent 

 parts, and fj.erpf'iv, to measure. 

 All Richter's works are connected 

 with the application of mathematics 

 to chemistry ; his inaugural disser- 

 tation, which appeared in 1789, 

 bearing the title ' de usu matheseos 

 in chymia' (Kopp, 'Geschichte der 

 Chemie,' vol. ii. p. 350). " Richter 

 etait preoccupe de 1'idee d'appliquer 

 les mathe'matiques a la chimie, et en 



