OF JAMES SMITHSON. 145 



nearly that the analytical chemistry of that day was power- 

 less to detect the difference. His analyses of the Mendip 

 Hill calamine seemed to show (and did show as nearly as 

 they showed the truth) that it was composed of — 



Carbonic acid 



Calx of zinc , 



He thought to have found further confirmation of his 

 views in the analysis of the compound sulphuret from Huel 

 Boys. It must be borne in mind that these attempts were 

 anterior to the publication of Dal ton's theory, (his Chemical 

 Philosophy, appeared in 1808.) The second of the above 

 mentioned papers was also in 1808, but in the very begin- 

 ning of the year. He seems to have been absent from Eng- 

 land, for he mentions in the beginning of the paper that the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1804, had just come into his 

 hands; and on page 39, paragraph 2, that certain of his 

 notes were in England. We may be sure he had no know- 

 ledge of Dalton's theory. In the paper "On the Composition 

 of Zeolite," published in 1811, he does not recur to them. I 

 think these views are worthy of notice in the history of 

 chemical theory. They were as certainly established as was 

 possible wUh the analytical methods of that day. 



Ilis very correct apprehension of the true problem of ana- 

 lytical chemistry probably confirmed him in his error. In 

 the second paper above referred to, on page 86, wo find the 

 following passage : 



" Wo have no real knowledge of the nature of a compound substance 

 until we are acquainted with \\a proximate elements, or those matters by 

 whose direct or immediate union it is produced ; for these only are its true 

 elements. Thus, ihough we know that vegetable acids consist of oxygene, 

 hydrogene, and carbon, we are not really acquainted with their composi- 

 tion, because these are not their proximate — that is, their true elements, 

 but are clomcnts of their elements, or elements of these. It is evident 

 what would bo our acquaintance with sulphate of iron, for example, did 

 wo only know that a crystal of it consisted of iron, sulphur, oxygene and 

 hydrogene; or of carbonate of lime, if only that it was a compound of 

 lime, carbon or diamond, and oxygene. In fact, totally dissimilar sub- 

 stances may have the same ultimate elements, and even probably in pre- 

 cisely the same proportions; nitrate of ammonia and hydrate of ammonia 

 or crystals of caustic volatile alkali both ultimately consist of oxygene, 

 hydrogene, and azote." 



This remarkably lucid passage could not be improved 

 upon now, three quarters of a century later. Without doubt 

 his exceedingly clear conception of importance of proxi- 

 mate analysis led him to seek the laws relative to compounds 

 in their proximate constituents; and he thought to havo 

 found them. 



The following passage, page 37, relating to the same 



10 



