MULTIPLE PROPORTIONS, LAW OF

statement that when two elements combine with each other to form more than one compound, the weights of one element that combine with a fixed weight of the other are in a ratio of small whole numbers. For example, there are five distinct oxides of nitrogen, and the weights of oxygen in combination with 14 grams of nitrogen are, in increasing order, 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40 grams, or in a ratio of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The law was announced (1804) by the English chemist John Dalton, and its confirmation for a wide range of compounds served as the most powerful argument in support of Dalton's theory that matter consists of indivisible atoms.