He was thus led to conclude that chemistry is a branch of applied mathematics and to endeavour to trace a law according to which the quantities of different bases required to saturate a given acid formed an arithmetical progression, and the quantities of acids saturating a given base a geometric progression.

[dubious – discuss] Richter found that the ratio by weight of the compounds consumed in a chemical reaction was always the same.

From his data, Ernst Gottfried Fischer calculated in 1802 the first table of chemical equivalents, taking sulphuric acid as the standard with a value of 1000.

[4] When Joseph Proust reported his work on the constant composition of chemical compounds, the time was ripe for the reinvention of an atomic theory.

This was partly because some of his work was incorrectly ascribed to Carl Wenzel by Jons Berzelius which was only corrected in 1841 by Henri Hess, professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg, and author of the laws of constant heat-sums and of thermoneutrality.