578 DOLBEAR. [VoL. II. 
similar atom could be attached by its four bonds, forming a cubi- 
cal box having a high degree of mechanical stability. It will 
have a symmetrical, but not a uniform, field; the corners be- 
ing the places having maximum displacements, and the middle 
of each edge the minimum, as the nodes are all in such posi- 
tions. Hence other similar cubes would be moved to assume 
symmetrical positions when in contact, and thus a cubical struc- 
ture, or prismatic form, would be built by aggregation of similar 
molecules. This is on the supposition that all the atoms com- 
bining thus together are equal in size as well as uniform in their 
vibrations; and this cubical form is one in which not a few of 
the elements crystallize ; for example, gold, iron, copper. 
If one would see more clearly how these nodes and loops fit 
together in such structures, let him make paper models, drawing 
a set of circles with their peripheries touching at one point, as 
shown in Fig. 4. Make points upon each circle to indicate the 
nodes, and then bend them up as described. If another one 
similar to 3 be made hinged at 6, it will form the cover to the 
cube, and all the nodes will be adjacent. 
So far such vortex atoms have been considered as being all 
of one magnitude, or as all having a similar rate of vibration ; 
but the different elements have different masses, and therefore 
vibrate with different rates; the greater the mass, the slower 
the rate, according to the laws of motion. When two elemen- 
tary atoms come into contact with each other while vibrating 
at their individual rates, whether they can cohere or not will 
depend upon whether the vibratory rates are commensurate or 
not. If they are not, there will be what is called interference 
in their respective fields, and each will tend to destroy the 
other’s field. When the vibrations of two tuning-forks not in 
unison or ina harmonic series are heard together, their inter- 
ferences are audible, and are called deats. They are in oppo- 
site phases a portion of the time. Vibrating atoms must be 
subject to the same conditions. One ought, therefore, to expect 
that elements with different masses would show different degrees 
of coherence, as indeed they do. There are all degrees of these 
incompatible movements from that exhibited by oxygen and 
fluorine, which have never been made to combine at all, through 
the slight cohesions shown by gold, platinum, etc., for other ele- 
ments, up to that exhibited by carbon for itself in the diamond, 
