EVIDENCE PROVING THE STATEMENT OF THE CASE 57 



objects (oxygen and hydrogen atoms) holds 1,200 

 units, and this is the reaction which we obtain when we 

 submit steam to a high temperature, or water molecules 

 to electrolysis. We see therefore that the three gaseous 

 objects -which composed the water molecule ultimately 

 are objects of the same volume, approximately, as water 

 in the gaseous form (fig. C), and of the same volume 

 or dimensions as the molecules of which the air consists. 

 This explains the law known as Avogadro's Law in 

 chemistry and physics. It is like most things in Nature, 

 not a rigid law, only an approximately rigid law. 



Let us grasp the conception of the inverse process. 

 To the three atoms in fig. E an excess of Ether is forced, 

 and they wrap over each other and become concentric, 

 forming a molecule of steam, fig. D. Immediately after 

 the forming of the molecule, or, as the chemist calls it, 

 combination takes place, it vibrates. Not a vibration 

 of impact and recoil, like solid, rigid billiard balls hitting 

 each other, but an alternate, very rapid, and a very 

 small contraction and expansion of the molecule, per se, 

 takes place. This vibration of the molecule lasts but a 

 very short time. This is the molecule in the incandescent 

 condition, and when we see these vibrating molecules 

 in mass, we call the mass flame. It is possible to illu- 

 minate steam in such a way that it looks so completely 

 like flame that even the expert, if he did not know 

 the condition of the experiment, would be most positive 

 that that which he saw was flame. 



When the expanded water molecule fig. D is 

 formed, it almost immediately begins to contract and 

 exude Ether very rapidly, even faster than gaseous 

 matter can absorb it, and Ether becomes for a time free 

 or intermolecular. It is this free Ether which lights a 



