Prout's hypothesis

English Etymology Named after the English chemist William Prout. Proper noun en historical physical chemistry An early 19th-century attempt to explain the existence of the various chemical elements: the hypothesis that, since the atomic weights for known elements appeared to be whole multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen, the hydrogen atom was the only truly fundamental object, and the atoms of other elements were actually groupings of various numbers of hydrogen atoms. See also en protyle en Hydrogen Obsolete scientific theories en eponyms