207 
Report of the Committee on Chemical Notation . 
Dr. Turner, the Chairman of the Committee appointed to 
take into consideration the adoption of an uniform system of 
chemical notation, made a report to the following effect:— 
1st. That the majority of the Committee concur in approving 
of the employment of that system of notation which is already in 
general use on the Continent, though there exist among them 
some differences of opinion on points of detail. 
2ndly. That they think it desirable not to deviate in the man¬ 
ner of notation from algebraic usage except so far as con¬ 
venience requires. 
3rdly. That they are of opinion that it would save much 
confusion if every chemist would always state explicitly the ex¬ 
act quantities which he intends to represent by his symbols. 
Dr. Dalton stated to the Chemical Section his reasons for 
preferring the symbols which he had himself used from the 
commencement of the atomic theory in 1803 to the Berzelian 
system of notation subsequently introduced. In his opinion 
regard must be had to the arrangement and equilibrium of the 
atoms (especially elastic atoms) in every compound atom, as 
well as to their number and weights. A system either of ar¬ 
rangements without weights , or of weights without arrange- 
- ments, he considered only half of what it should be. 
