The Experiments of Ramsay 



transformed one into the other ; such is the aspect 

 under which the world of matter appears to us. 



The firm adherence of chemists to this doc- 

 trine, and their entire reluctance to discard it for 

 some adventurous speculation, is thoroughly 

 justified; as a matter of fact, although in the 

 light of recent discoveries the indestructibility of 

 the elements has ceased to be an indisputable 

 truth, it still preserves the character of a practical 

 truth. Chemists, or at least those who take the 

 trouble to think, have, however, never regarded 

 the existence of seventy-two elements as an 

 infallible dogma. This number is certainly not 

 fixed for all time, as hardly a year passes without 

 the discovery, fancied or real, of some new 

 element. Everyone will still remember the 

 startling discovery made some few years ago by 

 Lord Rayleigh and Sir W. Ramsay of a series 

 of elementary gases helium, neon, argon, 

 krypton and xenon \ that is to say, five elements 

 contained in the air which we breathe and which 

 we thought we knew so well. 



The number of the bodies classed as elements 

 is continually increasing. There is something 

 strange in this, and our inner sense protests 



65 



