35^ Literary and Philosophical Society, 



Supplementary. 



Some of the results which more directly flow from 

 Dalton's work belong to the later period of the Society's 

 life not entered on. 



The great peculiarity of the atomic discovery of Dalton 

 was that it supplied a measure for all combinations — a 

 measure of bulk in an intellectual sense, and a measure of 

 weight in an absolute sense. This has been extended so 

 far that not only does the atom become a measure of com- 

 parative gravity, but it also supplies the same measure for 

 other forces, viz. heat and mechanical force. Matter 

 therefore has become a measure of force, and in the minds of 

 some a force in a wider sense than ever had been foreseen. 

 The following are two attempts made of late in the 

 Society to extend the atomic theory, . and as such they 

 have their own interest. They are still in a state not to 

 be exactly understood, because their relationships are not 

 sufficiently known; but they are young, and may grow, 

 and it may be well to place them beside those which have 

 already done much of their work. The world takes up 

 some of the themes, and leaves others, one wonders why. 

 When the true theory is found the relationships of the 

 elements will be numerous and astonish us daily. So with 

 the atomic weights of bodies, even those we have, and still 

 more those which exist below them and make up our atoms ; 

 and first will be given an account of Mr. Wilde's theories. 



It has been objected to this paper of Mr. Wilde's that 

 the numbers can have only some accidental similarity. 

 What can atoms have to do with the great movements 



