182 



INORGANIC EVOLUTION 



[CHAP. 



up into something which gives the complicated structure spectrum 

 with hundreds of lines not yet sorted into series, again into the one 

 series seen in our laboratories and in the cooler stars, still again into 

 two other forms we cannot get here. 



Let us apply the statistical method we employed in the case of 

 oxygen. 



In the region included in these inquiries the number of hydrogen 

 lines in the three series referred to is 17. Hasselberg has measured 

 454 lines in the structure spectrum between XX 642 and 441. Now if 

 this spectrum is built up of series similar to those observed at the 

 highest temperatures, we must have more (seeing that Hasselberg's 



work was limited) than . = 27 series or 9 sets of 3 each. We deal 



then altogether with 12 depolymerisations. 



But to be on the safe side, let us assume 6 on the ground that the 

 lines in the series may be more numerous, and that some of Hassel- 

 berg's lines may be due to flutings. It will be clear that the masses 

 or " atomic weights " we arrive at must be very small. Here is the 

 story : 



Where existent. Series, &c. Mass. 



[Celestial / Princi P al O' 0019 



. <p \ Subordinate 0'0039 



[ Terrestrial Subordinate 0'0078 



r f -D f Principal 0'0156 



- . , 4 Subordinate 0'0312 



[Subordinate 0'0625 



* j Q . [Principal 0*125 



I J^A, , 4 Subordinate 0'25 



^- Terrestrial [ Subordinate 0'5 



f Hydrogen weighed 



" \ in the cold . . 1 



Spectrum. 

 Line spectrum 



Fluted spectrum 

 Continuous spectrum 



Such a conclusion as this, and therefore the reasoning which has 

 led up to it, must stand or fall according as science knows anything of 

 such masses. 



I shall show subsequently that, thanks to the investigations of 

 Prof. J. J. Thomson, science is beginning to know a great deal of such 

 masses, arid the result of this work may therefore favour the view that 

 polymerisation is a vera causa for molecular complexity, at all events in 

 the cases of elements of low atomic weight ; if we accept the ordinary 

 chemical view. 



Let us then consider the case of those elements the atomic weight 

 of which is greater. In the first stages of evolution, in which we deal 

 with substances of relatively low atomic weight, the stellar evidence 

 supplies us with definite landmarks, and these are definite because the 

 spectra of the hottest stars are not overcrowded with lines. After we 

 haVe passed the gaseous and proto-metallic stages, however, we find 



