Protyle Prout, William

Brock, William H. 1985. From Protyle to Proton William Prout and the Nature of Matter, 1785-1985. Bristol and Boston Adam Hilger. 

In 1815 and 1816 William Prout (1785-1850) published two papers in which he asserted that the densities of gases were simple whole-number multiples of hydrogen. This was only a decade after Dalton first postulated atomic weights, and there were considerable uncertainties in experiments and formulas. Nonetheless, the concept was an attractive one since it implied the possibility of a simplest primary material out of which all other atoms were composed. Prout postulated the existence of this protyle from which all other atoms would be composed. It had an almost religious simplicity. In 1819, Berzelius published a... 

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