246 THE ATOMIC THEORY. 



sort of atomic geometiy. From geometric groupings of .small, con- 

 crete atoms the properties of different substances are deduced, but in 

 a way which is more curious than instructive. Between the theory 

 and the facts there is no obvious relation. The book was absolutely 

 without influence upon chemical thought or discovery, and therefore 

 it has escaped general notice. It is the prototype of a class of specu- 

 lative treatises, considerable in number, some of them recent, and all 

 of them futile. They represent efforts which were premature and 

 for which the fundamental support of experimental knowledge was 

 lacking. 



In 1775 Dr. Bryan Higgins, of London, published the prospectus 

 of a course of lectures upon chemistry, in which the atomic hypothesis 

 was strongly emphasized. It was still, however, only a hypothesis, 

 quite as ineffectual as Swedenborg's attempt, and it led to nothing. 

 Dr. Higgins recognized seven elements — earth, water, alkali, acid, air, 

 phlogiston, and light — each one consisting of "atoms homogeneal," 

 these being " impenetrable, inmiutable in .ffgure, inconvertible,""' and 

 all "globular, or nearly so.'" He speculated upon the attractions and 

 repulsions between these bodies, but he seems to have solved no prob- 

 lem and to have suggested no research. William Higgins, on the 

 other hand, whose work appeared in 1789. showed more insight into 

 the requirements of true science and had some notions concerning 

 definite and multiple proportions. His conception of atomic union to 

 form molecules was fairly clear, but the distinct statement of a quan- 

 titative law was just beyond his reach. In 1814, however, when Dal- 

 ton's discoveries were widely known and accepted, Higgins published 

 a reclamation of priority.^' In this, with much bitterness, he claims to 

 have completely anticipated Dalton, a claim which no modern reader 

 has been able to allow. In Robert ilngus I-^mith"s Memoir of John 

 Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory,* the work of Bryan and 

 William Higgins is quite thoroughly discussed, and therefore we need 

 not consider the matter any more fully now. We see that atomic 

 theories were receiving the attention of chemists long before Dal ton's 

 time, although none of them went nuich beyond the speculative stage 

 or was given serviceable form. The^- were dim foreshadowings of 

 science; nothing more. 



In order that a new thought shall l)e acceptable, certain prereciuisite 

 conditions nmst ])e fulfilled. If the ground is not prepared, the seed 

 can not ho fruitful; if men are not ready, no harvest will be reaped. 

 Only when the time is ripe, only when long lines of evidence have 

 begun to converge, can a new theory connnand attention. Dalton's 



« Experiments and Observations on the Atomic Theory and Electrical Phenomena. 

 By Williams Higgins, esq., etc. Dublin, 1.S14. 



''ISIemoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, second series, 

 vol. 13, 1856. 



