<P> In chemistry, the law of multiple proportions is one of the basic laws of stoichiometry used to establish the atomic theory, alongside the law of conservation of mass (matter) and the law of definite proportions . It is sometimes called Dalton's Law after its discoverer, the British chemist John Dalton, who published it in the first part of the first volume of his "New System of Chemical Philosophy" (1803). Here is the statement of the law: </P> <P> If two elements form more than one compound between them, then the ratios of the masses of the second element which combine with a fixed mass of the first element will be ratios of small whole numbers . </P>

Who discovered that atoms combine in whole number ratios