230 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



On the Absorption of Gases by Water and other Liquids. 

 By John Dalton, October 21, 1803. 



Page 286. . . . < Why does water not admit its bulk of 

 every kind of gas alike ? This question I have duly con- 

 sidered, and though I am not able to satisfy myself com- 

 pletely, I am nearly persuaded that the circumstance 

 depends upon the weight and number of the ultimate par- 

 ticles of the several gases. Those whose particles are 

 lightest and single being least absorbable, and the others 

 more, according as they increase in weight and complexity. 1 

 An inquiry into the relative weights of the ultimate par- 

 ticles of bodies is a subject, as far as I know, entirely new ; 

 I have lately been prosecuting this inquiry with remarkable 

 success. The principle cannot be entered upon in this 

 paper ; but I shall just subjoin the results, as far as they 

 appear to be ascertained by my experiments.' Here 

 follows the first table of atomic weights. 



Daltoris New System of Chemistry, 2nd edition. 

 Chapter iii. page 212. . . . * Chemical analysis and 

 synthesis go no farther than to the separation of particles 

 one from another, and to their reunion. No new creation or 

 destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency. 

 We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into 

 the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, 

 as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen. All the 

 changes we can produce consist in separating particles that 

 are in a state of cohesion or combination, and joining those 

 that were previously at a distance. 



1 < Subsequent experience renders this conjecture less probable. ' 



