410 Position of Helium, Argon, and Krypton in the Elements. 



patL, while simultaneously time is flowing on, and some circumstance 

 by which the element-forming cause is conditioned (e.g., temperature) 

 is declining; (variations which I have endeavoured to represent by 

 the downward slope.) The result of the first cycle may be represented 

 in the diagram by supposing that the unknown formative cause has 

 scattered along its journey the groupings now called hydrogen, lithium, 

 glucinum, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, sodium, mag- 

 nesium, aluminium, silicon, phorphorus, snlphur, and chlorine. But 

 the swing of the pendulum is not arrested at the end of the first round. 

 It still proceeds on its journey, and had the conditions remained 

 constant, the next elementary grouping generated would again be 

 lithium, and the original cycle would eternally reappear, producing 

 again and again the same fourteen elements. But the conditions are 

 not quite the same. Those represented by the two mutually rectan- 

 gular horizontal components of the motion (say chemical and electrical 

 energy) are not materially modified ; that to which the vertical com- 

 ponent corresponds has lessened, and so, instead of lithium being 

 repeated by lithium, the groupings which form the commencement of 

 the second cycle, are not lithium, but its lineal descendant, potassium. 



It is seen that each coil of the lemniscate track crosses the neutral 

 line at lower and lower points. This line is neutral as to electricity, 

 and neutral as to chemical action. Electro-positive elements are 

 generated on the northerly or retreating half of the swing, and 

 electro-negative elements on the southerly or approaching half. 

 Chemical atomicity is governed by distance from the central point of 

 neutrality ; monatomic elements being one remove from it, diatomic 

 elements two removes, and so on. Paramagnetic elements congregate 

 to the left of the neutral line, and diamagnetic elements to the right. 

 With few exceptions, all the most metallic elements lie on the north. 



Till recently chemists knew no element which had not more or less 

 marked chemical properties, but now by the researches of Lord 

 Rayleigh and. Professor Ramsay, we are brought face to face with a 

 group of bodies with apparently no chemical properties, forming 

 an exception to the other chemical elements. I venture to suggest 

 that these elements, helium, argon, and krypton in this scheme 

 naturally fall into their places as they stand on the neutral line. 

 Helium, with an atomic weight of 4, fits into the neutral position 

 between hydrogen and lithium. Argon, with an atomic weight of 

 about 40, as naturally falls into the neutral position between chlorine 

 and potassium. While krypton with an atomic weight of about 80, 

 will find a place between bromine and rubidium. 



See how well the analogous elements follow one another in order : 

 C, Ti, and Zr ; N and V ; Gl, Ca, Sr, and Ba ; Li, K, Bb, and Cs ; 01, 

 Br and I ; S, Se, and Te; Mg, Zn, Cd, and Hg; P, As, Sb, and Bi; 

 Al, Ga, In, and Tl. The symmetry of these series shows that we are 



