168 HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. 



though Davy for some time resisted. They objected, 

 indeed, to Dalton's assumption of atoms; and, to 

 avoid this hypothetical step, Wollaston used the 

 phrase chemical equivalents, and Davy the word 

 proportions, for the numbers which expressed Dal- 

 ton's atomic weights. m We may, however, venture 

 to say that the term " atom " is the most conveni- 

 ent, and it need not be understood as claiming our 

 assent to the hypothesis of indivisible molecules. 



As Wollaston and Dalton were thus arriving 

 independently at the same result in England, other 

 chemists, in other countries, were, unknown to each 

 other, travelling towards the same point. 



In 1807, Berzelius 6 , intending to publish a sys- 

 tem of chemistry, went through several works little 

 read, and among others the treatises of Richter. 

 He was astonished, he tells us, at the light which 

 was there thrown upon composition and decom- 

 position, and which had never been turned to profit. 

 He was led to a long train of experimental research, 

 and, when he received information of Dalton's ideas 

 concerning multiple proportions, he found, in his 

 own collection of analyses, a full confirmation of 

 this theory. 



Some of the Germans, indeed, appear discon- 

 tented with the partition of reputation which has 

 taken place with respect to the Theory of Definite 

 Proportions. One 7 of them says, "Dalton has only 

 done this; he has wrapt up the good Richter 

 6 Berz. Chem. B. iii. p. 27. 7 Marx. Gesch. der Cryst. p. 202. 



