THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN CHEMISTRY 



proved alluring, and for a time gained such popularity 

 that chemists were disposed to round out the observed 

 atomic weights of all elements into whole numbers. 



* i 



GUSTAVE ROBERT KIRCHHOFP 



But presently renewed determinations of the atomic 

 weights seemed to discountenance this practice, and 

 Prout's alleged law fell into disrepute. It was revived, 

 however, about 1840, by Dumas, whose great authority 

 secured it a respectful hearing, and whose careful rede- 

 termination of the weight of carbon, making it exactly 

 twelve times that of hydrogen, aided the cause, 



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