Abstract
IT may be doubted whether, fifty years ago, chemists and physicists believed very deeply in the actual reality of the molecules and atoms, which they used as convenient and simplifying conceptions to interpret the behaviour of matter. The half-century, indeed, has not passed without strong protest from the thermodynamical school of physical chemistry that the science should be so wedded to pure hypotheses and unverifiable assumptions, then, apparently, for ever beyond the power of being actually apprehended and demonstrated. That the modern student of physical science believes in the reality of the existence of his atoms and molecules, as much as he does in that of chairs, tables, and lampposts, probably sufficiently epitomises one of the most striking features of the change of outlook since NATURE made its first appearance in 1869. Vague ideas of their actual individual mass, size, shape, and constitution have been or are being replaced more and more by exact quantitative knowledge, which invites our literal acceptance and grows in fruitfulness the more implicitly it is used as the basis for further investigations.
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SODDY, F. Atoms and Molecules. Nature 104, 230–233 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104230a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104230a0