40 OF THE ATOMIC THEORY. 



affinities for acids. Some of them possess rather 

 the properties of acids than of bases. 



(7.) Most acids contain 3 atoms of oxygen ; 

 but some contain 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 atoms. 



The first two of these laws are unexcep*- 

 tionable ; bein merely a statement of what 

 every person, who has attended to the combina- 

 tions of atoms with each other, must have ob- 

 served. 

 The third The third law is not so obviously just, and will 



lawnotum- f t . . * 



versaiiy require some consideration before it can be adopt- 

 ed. The greater number of the alkaline bases, 

 as will appear from the following pages, contain 

 only 1 atom of oxygen : and the neutral salts 

 being compounds of 1 atom acid, and 1 atom 

 base, it is clear that in all of them, the oxygen of 

 the acid will be a multiple of the oxygen of the 

 base ; because every number is a multiple of 

 unity. Hence every acid, whether it contain 1, 

 2, 3, or more atoms of oxygen, must, in fact, con- 

 tain a number of atoms of that principle, equal 

 to the oxygen in the base, multiplied by the 

 number of atoms of oxygen in the acid. This 

 must necessarily be the case, because the oxygen 

 in every acid always amounts to a whole number 

 of atoms. Berzelius, indeed, considers almost all 

 the salifiable bases as containing two atoms of 

 oxygen. But he represents the neutral salts as 

 compounds of 1 atom base, and two atoms acid. 

 Now, whatever the number of atoms of oxy- 



