which is given by the other solid elements and therefore the atomic weight of magnesium must be taken as equal to 24 and not to 12. Then the atomic heat of magnesium = 24 × 0·245 = 5·9; for calcium, giving its compounds a composition CaX 2 —for example CaCl 2 , CaSO 4 , CaO (Ca = 40)—we obtain an atomic heat = 40 × 0·17 = 6·8, and for barium it is equal to 137 × 0·05 = 6·8; that is, they must be counted as bivalent, or that their atom replaces H 2 , Na 2 , or K 2 . This conclusion may be confirmed by a method of analogy, as we shall afterwards see. The application of the principle of specific heats to the determination of the magnitudes of the atomic weights of those metals, the magnitude of whose atomic weights could not be determined by Avogadro-Gerhardt's law, was made about 1860 by the Italian professor Cannizzaro.
Exactly the same conclusions respecting the bivalence of magnesium and its analogues are obtained by comparing the specific heats of their compounds, especially of the halogen compounds as the most simple, with the specific heats of the corresponding alkali compounds. Thus, for instance, the specific heats of magnesium and calcium chlorides, MgCl2 and CaCl2, are 0·194 and 0·164, and of sodium and potassium chlorides, NaCl and