158 



THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



Here is, also, the entire series of arrangements for collec- 

 tions of corpuscles of which the outer ring consists of twenty 

 corpuscles. 



Fifty-nine is the smallest number and 67 is the largest 

 number of corpuscles in one collection that can have an 

 outer ring of twenty. 



Let us see, now, how these corpuscles, with the configura- 

 tions which collections of them must take to satisfy their 

 attractive and repulsive forces, will answer for the One 

 Thing which we found so necessary in Part II, for any hope 

 of explaining the mysteries of the atoms. Will these col- 

 lections of corpuscles make atoms with the properties pos- 

 sessed by the atoms of the chemical elements ? 



PROUT'S HYPOTHESIS. 



The mass of the atom must be the sum of the masses of 

 the corpuscles it contains, so that the atomic weight is a 

 measure of the number of corpuscles in the atom. Thus, 



