Note 6 — Chapter VII · MOLECULES AND ATOMS. THE LAWS OF GAY-LUSSAC AND AVOGADRO-GERHARDT

It must not be forgotten that Newton's law of gravity was first a hypothesis, but it became a trustworthy, perfect theory, and acquired the qualities of a fundamental law owing to the concord between its deductions and actual facts. All laws, all theories, of natural phenomena, are at first hypotheses. Some are rapidly established by their consequences exactly agreeing with facts; others only take root by slow degrees; and there are many which are destined to be refuted owing to their consequences being found to be at variance with facts.