70 ABSOLUTE WEIGHTS OF ATOMS DOUBTFUL. 



water is a ternary compound, of two atoms hydro- 

 gen to 1 of oxygen. 



In like manner, when it was found that the 

 protoxide of nitrogen is composed of two volumes 

 nitrogen and one of oxygen, it was inferred that 

 it is a ternary compound of two atoms nitrogen 

 to one of oxygen. In accordance with this 

 view, Berzelius and many of the continental che- 

 mists regard the hydrogen atom of Dalton, and 

 the nitrogen atom of Thomson, Turner, Brande, 

 and other British authors, as double atoms, or 

 multiples of their real weights. But if it be true, 

 that the only combining proportions on which we 

 can depend, are such as the most accurate expe- 

 rimenters have found them to enter by weight 

 into the composition of compound bodies, we are 

 not authorized to adopt the numbers of Berzelius, 

 until verified by new and more accurate methods 

 of analysis. At the same time, I am free to con- 

 fess, that the great degree of elastic force in nitro- 

 gen, favours the opinion of Berzelius, that its 

 atomic weight is 7, compared with hydrogen, 

 instead of 14. It cannot, however, be supported 

 on the ground that equal volumes of gases and 

 vapours contain the same numbers of atoms; 

 for it is manifest, that while the atomic weight of 

 ammonia is 17 times that of hydrogen, its specific 

 gravity is only 8*5 ; that the atomic weight of 

 hydrochloric acid is 37, but its specific gravity 

 only 18*5, and so of various other gases. It is 



