ATOMIC DISINTEGRATION. 167 



as the saturation capacity of an atom, the power possessed 

 by an atom to unite with others, in other words, its 

 " grabbing power.'' We have never known the meaning of 

 it. We can see now that it is electrical in its origin. A 

 univalent positive atom is one which, under the circum- 

 stances of chemical action, attains stability by losing one, 

 and only one, corpuscle. A univalent negative atom, like 

 chlorine, is one that will acquire one, and only one, corpus- 

 cle. A divalent positive atom is one which will lose two 

 corpuscles and no more, and so on. The valency of the 

 atom is thus simply a question of the number of corpuscles 

 that can escape from or be received by the corpuscular 

 grouping which constitutes any one kind of atom. Thus 

 the valency as well as the other properties of elements such 

 cs neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus 

 sulphur, chlorine and argon of the 2d series of the peri- 

 odic law are the properties and valencies of groups of 59, 

 CO, 61 , 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67, corpuscles respectively. 



CHEMICAL ACTION. 



Chemical action can also be explained as electrical and 

 corpuscular in its nature. Suppose that we have a num- 

 ber of sodium atoms which are capable of losing one cor- 

 puscle each mixed with the same number of chlorine atoms 

 which are capable, on this theory, of acquiring one corpus- 

 cle each. Then the corpuscles which escape from the sodium 

 atoms will find a home on the chlorine atoms which are well 

 able to retain them. 



The result of this is that all the sodium atoms -will ac- 

 quire their unit positive charge and all the chlorine atoms 

 their unit negative charge. The positive atoms of sodium 

 will then attract the negative atoms of chlorine, electrically, 

 and we shall obtain the compound sodium chloride or com- 



