444 



Atomic Weight of Mercury. 



where the love of justice is strong : various as are the blossoms 

 of that tree, they produce but one fruit, truth; which is to justice, 

 what the pericarp of the cherimoyer among the anonaceae, is to 

 its seed. If we would have truth, we must plant justice. Had 

 Del Rio been in Europe, this matter would have been properly 

 arranged long ago. The smallest innovation there, upon a pre- 

 emption right in the metacarp of even a coleopteral, will set a 

 whole Versammlung in arms, and produce a hundred pages of 

 sur-rejoinders, at least. Let it be an additional motive to those 

 to whom we now appeal for justice, that, as the face of nature 

 seems to smile, when the setting sun breaks through a troubled 

 sky, so it would cheer the declining days — which are not sunny 

 ones — of the venerable Del Rio, to learn that men have done that 

 justice to his name, which fortune has never done to his merits. 



ATOMIC WEIGHT OF MERCURY. 



Mr. Editor, — Your correspondent, A. B. H. will find a solu- 

 tion of his inquiries, respecting the atomic weight of mercury, in 

 a recent work of Dr. Thompson's, viz. " Chemistry of Inorganic 

 Bodies." As the book has but just come from the author's hands, 

 and probably will not be reprinted in this country, it may be 

 worth while to extract such parts of it as relate to the matter 

 in question. It ought to be premised, that as Dr. T. adopts oxy- 

 gen for his unit, his atomic numbers must be multiplied by eight, 

 to reduce them to a hydrogen basis. 



" In majiy cases it is not easy to fix upon the true number 

 denoting the atomic weight of a body. We can always 

 infer, that the weight of one body that enters into combination 

 with another, either denotes the atomic weight of the body, or 

 at least a multiple, or sub-multiple of that weight ; but, in some 

 cases, it may be very difficult to determine which of the three. 

 Thus, for example, we have two compounds of mercury and 

 oxygen, the constituents of which by weight are as follows : — 

 Black oxide, Merc. 25 -f 1 Oxy. 



Red oxide, " 25 + 2 " 



" We might consider the atoms of mercury to be 25. On 

 that supposition, the black oxide would be a compound of 1 

 atom mercury plus 1 atom oxygen ; and the red oxide of 1 atom 

 mercury plus 2 atoms oxygen. 



