SIR B. C. BEODIE ON THE CALCULUS OF CHEMICAL OPERATIONS. 



851 



Hypothesis II. W=2A, X=2x-\-l. 



This example may serve to show how inadequate are those considerations which are 

 frequently regarded as affording a satisfactory solution of these important problems. If 

 we are to pronounce an opinion on such slender data, the more probable hypothesis 

 seems to be that which associates silver and the allied metals with the other electro- 

 positive elements. In the two cases (namely mercury and cadmium) in which the fact 

 can be experimentally determined, W= A. In other instances also, such as that of zinc, 

 there is every reason to believe that this is the case. 



As hypotheses thus accumulate the probability diminishes of the conclusions which 

 are based upon them. It is, however, to be remembered that such uncertainty is not 

 peculiar to chemistry, but that in every inductive science our exact knowledge lies within 

 a very narrow sphere, as compared with the total field of observation ; and after every 

 deduction has been made on this account, there remains, as the solid nucleus of the 

 science, the combinations of carbon and the gaseous elements, which hold in the theory 

 of chemistry a position somewhat analogous to that occupied in astronomy by our solar 

 system, as the area of exact observation. 



Sectiok VIII.— ON THE APPARENT EXCEPTIONS TO THE LAW OF PRIME FACTORS. 



(1) On proceeding with the construction of the symbols of chemical substances, it will 

 be found that in a certain limited number of cases the primary equations are apparently 

 of such a nature as to render impossible the expression in them of the symbols by means 

 of the same system of prime factors «,%,!,... by which the symbols in other cases can 

 be expressed. It is probable that this anomaly admits of a very simple explanation, 

 but it is not without interest to consider the modifications which such a fact, if it were 

 truly established, would render necessary in our chemical ideas. 



The density of sal-ammoniac in the gaseous condition, as experimentally determined, 

 is 14*44, so that 4 volumes of sal-ammoniac are apparently decomposed into 4 volumes 



