Dr. E. J. Mills on the First Principles of Chemistry. 11 



But this equation is a suppressio veri, by omitting u + energy " 

 from its right-hand side ; and a suggestio falsi, by proposing 

 to consider any bulk of water as made up of at least three 

 parts. We must therefore abandon the common chemical 

 equations. 



(/3) On the ordinary supposition, bodies are supposed not 

 only to have parts, but to have such parts disposed in a certain 

 way ; this is their constitution. The constitution of benzol, 

 C 6 H 6 , is, for example *, 



But it has been shown that quantity does not consist of parts 

 at all, however arranged. The theory of " constitution " is 

 therefore shattered by the same stroke that smote its parent 

 the " equation." 



(y) According to the Berzelian nomenclature (revived in 

 recent times, and by far the most scientific that has yet been 

 devised for chemistry), formulae are represented by dual names 

 which correspond to the specific and generic names of biology. 

 Thus we have 



HC1 H 2 C 2 4 H3P0 4 



Hydric chloride. Dihydric oxalate. Terhydric phosphate. 



similar to JPinus sylvestris, Geranium robertianum, &c. These 

 names, therefore, suggest what the formulae suggest ; and, 

 with the formulae, they must retire. The less grammatical 

 names, such as sodium chloride, calciwm nitrate, are clearly 

 involved in a similar fortune. 



Here I may perhaps be encountered by the question, What 

 is to be the instrument of discovery and reasoning if the atomic 

 theory be discarded ? This inquiry is sometimes so confidently 

 made, that it seems to be deemed unamenable to a reply. But 

 the answer is obvious, and it is furnished by history. Che- 

 mistry existed before Dalton. The discoverers of the cause of 

 the increase of weight of metals by burning, of the chemical 



* Kekule, Lehrluch, vol. ii. p. 496. 



