In order to understand
chemistry they procured Regnault's course of lectures, and were, in the
first place, informed that "simple bodies are perhaps compound." They
are divided into metalloids and metals--a difference in which, the
author observes, there is "nothing absolute." So with acids and bases,
"a body being able to behave in the manner of acids or of bases, according
to circumstances."
The notation appeared to them
irregular. The multiple proportions perplexed Pécuchet.
"Since one molecule of
_a_, I suppose, is combined with several particles of _b_, it seems to
me that this molecule ought to be divided into as many particles; but, if it is
divided, it ceases to be unity, the primordial molecule. In short, I do not
understand."
"No more do I," said
Bouvard.
The best
thing is the ending. They seem secondary
students when they blurt out “I don’t get it” in class, implying that science,
or even the teacher, are to blame for the mistake. Bouvard and Pècuchet go through the whole
novel like this, science after science.
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