ABSTRACT
Gaudin sought to reconcile the laws of chemistry with the findings of early crystallography, the experimental part of which comprised the study of the external forms of crystals. He constructed molecules of various shapes, consistent with the symmetry of the corresponding crystal. The molecules were composed of atoms in the required proportions. These atoms were, in turn, considered to be made up of particles of ether but it sufficed for his purpose that they were assumed to be roughly spherical and packed together with roughly constant separations. His illustrations were delightful (Figure 13.1) but his speculations were no more than a shot in the dark, one small chapter in a confused story not concluded until the early twentieth century.
