The Romance of Chemistry 715 



experience and exact science lead us, is this: that, given a small 

 number of sociable elements there may be many a menage. From 

 a few elements, even from fewer than we can count on the fingers 

 of our two hands, there may be a new world. And the view is 

 widely held among chemists that there has arisen from one ele- 

 mental stuff the whole array of known elements. 



1 



In a previous chapter, THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNIVERSE, 

 the problems which the Physicist and the Chemist of to-day are so 

 eagerly investigating were fully discussed. We saw there how 

 it has come about that all the observed phenomena of Chemistry 

 and Physics are regarded as indications of the fundamental unity 

 of matter. All matter, in short, is supposed to be, in its final 

 analysis, essentially the same in constitution. The atoms of all 

 matter consist of particles of positive and negative electricity ; the 

 simplest atom, that of hydrogen, is a unit of negative electricity, 

 called an electron, revolving round a nucleus of positive electri- 

 city, called a proton. Electrons obtained from different atoms are 

 found to be the same ; in an atom of hydrogen there is one electron, 

 in an atom of helium two, in an atom of lithium three. The addi- 

 tion of further electrons to the system gives rise to the atoms of all 

 other elements. All matter is thus supposed to be electrical in its 

 nature. The atom, since its disintegration is seen to take place, is 

 no longer the atom indivisible or incapable of being broken up 

 into something simpler. It is not now believed that each of the 

 eighty or so elements known to us has its own kind of atom, each 

 stamped with its own properties. The properties and qualities of 

 the different elements, it is believed, depend on the number and 

 arrangement of the particles of negative electricity (electrons) 

 and of positive particles (protons) contained in the atoms of the 

 various elements. The view is that all the elements, though they 

 have different chemical qualities, are built up out of the same 



