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The Berthollet-Proust Controversy and Dalton's Chemical Atomic Theory 1800–1820

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Kiyohisa Fujii
Kiyohisa Fujii
Affiliation:
Tokyo Institue of Technology, Department of Science Education, 2–12–1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
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Extract

The Berthollet-Proust controversy and Dalton's atomic theory are two important historical landmarks which appeared almost simultaneously at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. Therefore it is likely that between the theory of definite proportions—one of the main subjects of the controversy–and Dalton's atomic theory there was an important interrelation, and that they reinforced each other. Kapoor has suggested that Proust could not have been the forerunner of Dalton's law of constant and multiple proportions, because Dalton discovered his law from completely different premises, and does not seem to have got his ideas from Proust. In my opinion, however, his conclusion does not seem to be decisive.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , July 1986 , pp. 177 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1986

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References

I am most grateful to Dr David M. Knight of Durham University for patiently reading a draft of this paper and giving me valuable suggestions and advice, and also to a anonymous referee of this journal for offering many useful suggestions. I would also like to thank the staff of Durham University Library and the Library of Tokyo Institute of Technology for their assistance in obtaining materials required for the study.

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