T. S. Hunt — Chemical Integration. 223 



facts, which, however, does not. appear to be acceptable to 

 Schiitzenberger, Boutlerow, or Cooke (who has published a 

 valuable discussion of the subject), is nevertheless an approx- 

 imation to what we conceive to be the true one, believing 

 however that the oxyds with more or less than the ordinary 

 proportions of oxygen are not necessarily nor even probably 

 (with some apparent exceptions) admixtures, but definite inter-' 

 mediate oxyds, being members of great progressive series. 



§ 13. The conception that these variations in composition 

 are due to the presence of admixed portions of more and less 

 oxygenized compounds is not acceptable to Schiitzenberger for 

 the evident reason that it becomes inadmissible when we have 

 to deal with gaseous or vaporous species such as carbon dioxyd 

 and as water-vapor. This, as generated by passing hydrogen 

 gas over ignited copper oxyd, presents according to him, varia- 

 tions in the proportions of H : 0, of from 1*00 : 7*95 to 1 ; 00 : 8*15 

 by weight ; that corresponding rigorously to the volumetric re- 

 lation 2 : 1, being, from the most probable data, very nearly 

 1*00 : 7*98. Water thus obtained, with an excess of oxygen, 

 though neutral, possesses, according to Schiitzenberger, oxy- 

 dizing powers ; the same being true of carbon dioxyd with the 

 larger proportion of oxygen. 



§ 14. Prof. Cooke, as we have seen (§ 10), had already in 

 1860, arrived at a conclusion similar to that subsequently 

 reached by Schiitzenberger and by Boutlerow; namely, that 

 " the law of definite proportions is not so absolute as has been 

 hitherto supposed ;" but that the chemical value of the elements 

 may change within certain limits. In his discussion, in 1883 

 of these views as enunciated by the chemists just named, Cooke 

 remarks — " Such opinions are certainly very revolutionary, and 

 if they prevail must entirely change the fundamental concep- 

 tions of chemical philosophy. Chemical combination can no 

 longer be regarded as the juxtaposition of the definite inva- 

 riable masses which we call atoms, but must be considered as 

 the ' reciprocal saturation ' or ' interpenetration ' of masses which 

 may vary with the relative strength of their chemical energy 

 acting at the time; and this diange of the fundamental 

 conception is inconsistent with the atomic theory, and with the 

 superstructure which modern chemistry has built upon it." 

 Cooke adds that while holding that " the atomic theory is the 

 only basis on which a consistent philosophy can at present be 

 built" — "he is rather drawn to that view of nature which 

 refers all differences between substances to dynamical causes, 



Schiitzenberger, "conduisent directement a cette conclusion, que la loi des propor- 

 tions definies n'est pas rigoreuse, a moins qu'on ne veuille admettre dans chaque 

 cas particulier l'existence des composes plus oxigenes on raoius oxigeues que 

 ceux connus jusqu' a present, et qui se trouveraient en melange avec le pro- 

 duit principal de la reaction." 



