ATOMIC DISINTEGRATION. 153 



leads us to think that, as Rowland long ago said/ ' a broad- 

 way grand piano is a very simple mechanism compared 

 with, say, an atom of iron/' 



On the basis, then, of the theory that the atom of any 

 element is a complex of corpuscular systems we should be 

 able to account for the following mysteries of matter : 



1. Prout's Hypothesis, 4. Group Relations of the 



pp. 19, 20. Law, pp. 30-33. 



2. Triads of Dobereiner, 5. Series Relations, p. 29. 



pp. 21, 22. 



3. The Periodic Law, 6. Valency, p. 37. 



pp. 22-25. 



7. The Inert Elements of 



the Zero Group, pp. 

 36-38. 



8. The electro-chemical 



properties of the ele- 

 ments. 



9. Radio-activity and the 



existence of unstable 

 atoms. 



We begin with a corpuscle. We know it to be a particle 

 a thousand times smaller in mass than the smallest atom. 

 We know it to possess a high velocity. We know it also 

 to be charged, invariably, with a definite dharge of negative 

 electricity. But since a negative charge of electricity has 

 always associated with it an equal positive charge, we 

 should expect the negative charge on our corpuscle to 

 follow the pattern of all other negative charges and to have 

 associated with it, too, an equal charge of positive electric- 

 ity. Our atom, therefore, we assume to be a sphere of 

 positive electrification enclosing a number of negatively 



