"The atomic theory may be regarded in two distinct ways, ...The older and vague atomic theory professed to be a theory of the constitution of bodies and to afford the basis for a physical explanation of physical phenomena; in order to do this, forces of attraction and repulsion between the particles of matter had to be assumed, and elaborate calculations as to the integral or resultant effect of these elementary forces had to be instituted, or at least formulated. ...ingenious as those theories were, they led to no results in the direction of the calculation of the molar and molecular properties of bodies, or if they did, they yielded none which could not be gained by the opposite view which regarded matter as continuous. The atomic theory, however, did good service from another point of view, when through Richter, Dalton, Proust, and Berzelius the fact that bodies combine only in definite proportions of weight, or their simple multiples, became firmly established. The authors of this discovery were driven to the atomic view of matter as the most convenient method of expressing the formulæ of chemical compounds."
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A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century
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