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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
indivisible atom. Leucippus possibly first propounded the atomic theory "as a means out of Zeno's paradox of the hare and tortoise." About one hundred years later Democritus of Abdera advocated the atomicity of matter. These early Greek philosophers had sown the seed of the concept of atom which gradually developed into a full-fledged atomic theory of modern physical sciences. The convincing proof of the atomicity of matter actually came up about 200 years ago when the natural philosophers observed the fact that "the existence of recognizable substance recoverable from homogeneous mixtures was difficult to reconcile with any theory of the continuity of matter.' 2
In 1738 it was stated by Daniel Bernoulli that "the behaviour of a gas, as the pressure and temperature were changed, could be explained on the hypothesis that the gas consisted of a larger number of infinitesimal particles in rapid motion."3 The most important evidence for the atomic hypothesis probably was found in the two early chemical laws of definite and multiple proportions which are generally associated with the names of J. L. Prout and J. B. Richter in the later part of the eighteenth century. They are as follows:--
(1) "The propo.tions in which two elements combine cannot vary continuously, (2) If two elements combine together in more than one way, the mass of an element that combines with a given mass of the other are in simple ratios to one another. The laws are summarised succinctly in the present common notation for chemical formula. But it was not until 1808 that John Dalton marshalled and presented the evidence sufficiently convincingly to say scientific opinion to the acceptance of the atomic theory."4
Dalton came to the conclusion from the thought of the way in which various elements unite together to form chemical 1. Atomic Physics, ch. II, p. 40.
2. Ibid.
4. Ibid.,
p. 41.
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3. Ibid.
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