84 Mr. Henry Wilde on the 



All the numerical relations among the atomic weights 

 discovered by Cooke, Pettenkofer, Dumas, and others, are 

 stated by Mendeleeff to be only the forerunners of the 

 so-called periodic law, and even Newlands is said to have 

 made only an approach to it, and discovered its germs. 



A careful comparison of my table with that of Men- 

 deleeff will show that,had he made the above pronouncement 

 with reference to my arrangement of the atomic weights in 

 multiple proportions, he would have been much nearer the 

 truth ; as my generalisations and classifications flow in 

 regular sequence from the natural evolution of chemical 

 ideas. 



While an ordinary observer would see a great resem- 

 blance between my table of the elements and that of 

 Mendeleeff — even to the extent of placing H outside the 

 system — the discerning chemist will at once perceive how 

 radically different they are, but chiefly in that all Men- 

 deleeff's atomic weights are estimated quantities ; while 

 in my table, the atomic weights determine themselves 

 from their multiple relations. Nor will the philosophical 

 chemist fail to recognise the fact, how largely in- 

 debted I am to the labours of others for the stores 

 of chemical knowledge which have rendered my dis- 

 covery of the multiple relations of the atomic weights of the 

 elements possible. — The greater the advance made in 

 science by the individual, the greater is his indebtedness to 

 those workers who have gone before him. 



I regret that there is not more of novelty in this paper, 

 but the ad captandum methods which have recently been 

 adopted to dispose of the questions of the nature 

 of the elements; the multiple relations of the atomic 

 weights; and to establish the dogma of the so-called 

 periodic law by the imposition of unreasoning authority, 

 render it imperative upon me to combat these pretensions 

 with all the means at my disposal. — To check the growth 



