The Daltonian would say that each of these weights represents a certain group of atoms, and that these groups can replace, or combine with, each other, to form new molecules.
It would be a serious business to draw a Daltonian diagram for such a molecule.
Berzelius, in 1813 and 1814, by improved methods of analysis, established that the Daltonian laws of combination held in both the inorganic and organic kingdoms; and he adopted the view of Lavoisier that organic compounds were oxides of compound radicals, and therefore necessarily contained at least three elements - carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
The phenomenon of isomerism will probably supply the crucial test, at least for the chemist, and the question will be whether the Ostwaldian conception, while substituting the Daltonian hypothesis, will also explain isomerism.
An immediate inference was that the Daltonian " atom " must have parts which enter into combination with parts of other atoms; in other words, there must exist two orders of particles, viz.