Proceedings. 13 



Ordinary Meeting, December nth, 1894. 

 Henry Wilde, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of 

 the books upon the table. 



A discussion took place on the alleged new cure for 

 diphtheria, antitoxin, in the course of which Dr. Ho-DG- 

 KINSON gave evidence from his experience of the apparent 

 efficacy of treatment with sulphite of magnesia. 



Mr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., read a paper on "The 

 Multiple Proportions of the Atomic Weights of Elementary 

 Substances in relation to the Unit of Hydrogen," in which, 

 with special reference to Lord Salisbury's statement in his 

 presidential address to the British Association at Oxford, 

 that there is no foundation for the theory that the atomic 

 weights of elementary substances are multiples of hydrogen, 

 he maintained the contrary views expressed in his paper on 

 the origin of elementary substances read before the Society 

 in 1878, and gave further evidence in their support. Starting 

 from the nebular hypothesis of the successive condensations 

 of a primordial substance into planetary systems in definite 

 proportions, Mr. Wilde maintains that elementary "species" 

 have been formed from the further condensations of the 

 nebular substances into a series of typical hydrogen mole- 

 cules, that the series of so-called elements have been formed 

 by the successive condensation of the molecule at the head 

 of each series in multiple proportions, and that the atomic 

 weights of each series are multiples of the typical molecule. 

 He exhibited tables showing such multiple relations 

 between the planetary distances from the sun in a geometric 

 series, and similar relations between the atomic weights of 



