Note 11 — APPENDIX III

Without having the slightest reason for doubting the accuracy of Rayleigh and Ramsay's determinations, I think it necessary to say that as yet (February 1895) I am only acquainted with the short memoir of the above chemists in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ which does not give any description of the methods employed and results obtained, while at the end (in the general conclusions) the authors themselves express some doubt as to the simple nature of argon. Moreover, it seems to me that (Note 10) there must be a dependence of k upon the chemical energy. Besides which, it is not clear what density of the gas Rayleigh and Ramsay took in determining k. (If argon be N3, its density would be near to 21.) Hence I permit myself to express some doubt as to whether the molecule of argon contains but one atom.