Chemical method, notation, classification, & nomenclature / by Auguste Laurent ; translated by William Odling.

  • Laurent, Auguste, 1807-1853.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemical method, notation, classification, & nomenclature / by Auguste Laurent ; translated by William Odling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/414
    The method that I propose cannot be the production of one single person; it is a neutral ground to which I invite chemists to repair, so that they may understand one another in the midst of the various existing systems, and of those which, in the course of a short time, may be produced. I do not, on this account, reject the research after causes, although these may form perhaps but a perpetual mirage, destined to impel us incessantly to an explora- tion of new countries. To effect the acceptation of a new system, it is necessary, in the first place, to point out the vices and errors of that which is in use. I therefore commence by a criticism on the equivalents and atomic weights which are generally received; not, indeed, that I have any observation to make against their institution and usage; but only upon the convenience of the numbers by which they are generally expressed. I then discuss the manner in which the arrangement of atoms, and the composition of bodies, are repre- sented. Lastly, I pass in review the classifications and nomen- clature that are generally employed. After an examination of the reasons that have led chemists to choose the equivalents in ordinary use, I see in these same reasons a motive for seeking some other system, and I finally adopt that of Gerhardt, which allows a simplification of the notation, and a better generalisation of the facts. Then, by relying upon a special law, which presides over the number of equivalents entering into compound bodies, and to which I have given the name of the law of even numbers, I deduce various consequences concerning gaseous volumes, polybasic acids, anhydrous acids, radicals, bi-acid bases, the combinations of the R203 oxides, and the composition of neutral, double, acid, basic, and hydrated salts. Then, I examine the relations which exist between the crys- talline form and the composition of certain bodies. Subsequently, I study the subject of metamorphoses and sub- stitutions. I seek to determine the relations which exist between the formative equations of compound bodies and their properties; and I consider principally the equations of complex bodies. Having glanced at the different theories concerning the