162 



THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



odic recurrence of properties turns out to be, in fact, a 

 necessity if the atoms are built up of corpuscles. 



GROUP RELATIONS OF THE LAW. 



The fact that atoms built up of corpuscles necessarily 

 result in a periodic law has, as a further necessary conse- 

 quence, the existence of natural families among the ele- 

 ments. If the reader will re-inspect the table of the cor- 

 puscular groupings he will find, for example, that the 

 group of 60 corpuscles consists of the same rings of 

 corpuscles as the group of 40, with an additional ring 

 of 20 corpuscles around it, while the group of 40 consists 

 of the same rings as the group of 24, with an additional 

 ring outside, while 24 is the group 11 with an additional 

 ring, 11 being the group 3 with an additional ring, thus: 



We see, in this way, that we can divide the various 

 groups of corpuscles into families such that each member 

 of the family is derived from the preceding member, (the 

 member just above it in the vertical columns of the table 

 of the periodic law), by adding to it another ring of cor- 

 puscles. 



We should expect atoms formed in this way of related 

 groups of corpuscles to possess resembling properties; and 

 since in the elements themselves we find such groups, it 

 would be strange if their actual existence and the necessity 

 for their existence on the basis of our theory had no sig- 

 nificance or relation. Professor Thomson has recently 



