The old ideas were put on a scientific scale by John Dalton in the form of a theory, known as Dalton’s atomic theory,
Main postulates of which are as follows :
• All matters are made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible and indestructible.
• All atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties.
• Atoms of different elements differ in properties and have different masses and sizes.
• Compounds are formed by ai combination of two or more different kinds of atoms.
• A chemical reaction is a rearrangement of atoms.These are neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction