14 Proceedings. 



the elements in an arithmetical series. It was admitted 

 that the latest experimental determinations of the atomic 

 weights of some of the elements enumerated did not agree 

 perfectly with the theoretic weights as indicated in Mr. 

 Wilde's tables, worked out from his hypothesis of multiple 

 relations, but, taking four series, including twenty-four 

 members, the author urged that the differences, when distri- 

 buted over the series, only amounted to o - oo36, or less than 

 half of i per cent of the actual determinations, and that 

 chemists should rather endeavour by further investigations 

 to explain these small anomalies than reject his law because 

 of their existence. Dalton's law of definite combining pro- 

 portions, first given to the world by the Society, might, he 

 contended, have been rejected on similar grounds. In illus- 

 tration of this point, Mr. Wilde referred to the anomalous 

 specific heat of silicon, and to Regnault's statement that, in 

 order that silicon might enter into conformity with the law 

 of the specific heat of other elements, its atomic weight 

 should be 35, which, though not in accordance with the 

 accepted valency, is in accordance with the theoretic weight 

 as indicated by Mr. Wilde's hypothesis of multiple relations. 

 Mr. Wilde adversely criticised the periodic law of Newlands 

 and Mendeleeff, and, comparing his tables with those drawn 

 up by those chemists, maintained that the latter arrange- 

 ments were arbitrary, and that when the seriatim order of 

 the atomic weights is rightly adhered to, the idea of octaves, 

 recurring properties, or periodic functions in terms of the 

 vertical series of Newlands or the horizontal series of Men- 

 deleeff has no real foundation in nature. 



A discussion ensued, in which Dr. SCHUNCK, Professor 

 H. B. Dixon, Dr. BOTTOMLEY, and Professor SCHUSTER 

 took part. 



