CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 221 



lecturer conceived that the total abnegation of the influence of the electrical 

 character of elements upon the chemical properties of their compounds 

 implied by this theory of types, was directly opposed to many of the phe- 

 nomena of chemical combination, which invariably revealed such a con- 

 nection. The effect of successive additions of oxygen to an electro-positive 

 element, in gradually weakening its basic, and consequently electro-posi- 

 tive, qualities, and finally converting it into an acid, or electro-negative 

 body, was well known in the case of manganese, iron, chromium, gold, 

 &c., but the effects of the juxtaposition of two or more elements of similar 

 electrical character had not hitherto been much studied. Granting the 

 existence of an electrical charge associated with the molecules of matter, 

 it was evident that such a union of atoms as that just mentioned would 

 resemble two approximated globes similarly electrified. Xow, the effect of 

 the approximation of two such globes would be the intensification of the 

 charge of each ; and, therefore, if there were any connection between 

 electrical and chemical character, it would be exemplified by an increased 

 energy of affinity under such circumstances. Examples of such an 

 approximation of atoms of similar character were not wanting, even 

 amongst inorganic bodies : thus the compounds of chlorine with oxygen 

 were remarkable instances of the union of like atoms ; and we see in 

 several of them the truth of the foregoing proposition fully borne out. 

 Hypochlorus, chlorus, and chloric acids, were all distinguished by the 

 intense energy of their affinities, and contrasted strongly with the com- 

 pounds of oxygen or chlorine with electro-positive elements. The 

 compounds of phosphorus with hydrogen also exemplified the same effect. 

 Phosphorus, though usually regarded as an electro-negative body, was yet 

 far more closely associated in its general character with the metals than 

 with the metalloids ; we were, therefore, entitled to regard a compound 

 of this element with hydrogen as a juxtaposition of two similarly electri- 

 fied atoms. Now, two of the compounds of phosphorus with hydrogen, 

 viz., bin-hydride and ter-hydride of phosphorus, were remarkable for the 

 intensity of their affinities, the one being spontaneously inflammable, and 

 the other merely requiring a diminution of pressure, when mixed with 

 atmospheric air or oxygen, to determine its combustion. But the influence 

 of the electrical character of elements upon the chemical properties of their 

 compounds was, perhaps, most strikingly seen in the behavior of the 

 organo-metallic bodies, nearly all of which had only recently been dis- 

 covered. Most of these bodies, which, in their isolated condition, consisted 

 of two or more similarly electrified atoms, were distinguished by an intensity 

 of affinity which was quite foreign to their proximate, or even elementary, 

 constituents. Zinc and methyl, for instance, were neither of them dis- 

 tinguished for any remarkable energy of affinity in their free state ; but 

 united, as zinc- methy Hum, they formed a compound, whose combining 

 energy surpassed that of all known bodies ; and this behavior was shared 

 in, also, by the corresponding compounds of zinc with ethyl and arnyl. In 

 cacodyl, stanethylium, stibethylium, and the new compounds of arsenic 



