Silliman (le fils), Benjamin (1816—1885), chimiste américain, éditeur — avec son père — du American Journal of Science. La correspondance entre lui et Berzelius date des années 1844—1845 et traite plus particulièrement l’hypothèse de Prout.
Honored Sir,
Presuming on the friendly relations which have so long subsisted between my Father196 and yourself, I venture to address you a few lines, although personally unknown to you: relative to a subject of the greatest scientific interest viz. the atomic weight of the elementary bodies.
There is in this country a strong disposition to adopt the views of MM. Prout and Dumas, which assume that the combining weights of all bodies are simple multiples of Hydrogen as a unit. This disposition is doubtless favored by the concurrent testimony of some eminent British chemists, whose works have (from their similarity of language) a wide circulation here. Were your own more illustrious works equally well known here, this letter would be uncalled for.
