336 LAUGEL'S PEOBLEMS OF NATURE A^ LIFE. 



proof that such limits do really exist. These conclu- 

 sions, though we can in no way contravene them in 

 theory, and though they express what may perhaps be 

 called necessary -physical conditions, yet are hardly 

 determinate enough to be recorded as scientific truths. 

 The huge array of figures which modern science so 

 often forces upon us in describing each extremity of 

 the scale of magnitudes in nature whether of matter, 

 or space or motion often creates distrust in men, even 

 the most intelligent, not accustomed to physical evi- 

 dence. The concurrent and co-ordinate nature of this 

 evidence, and the power it so frequently gives of 

 predicting results, furnish all needful reply to scepticism 

 of this kind. That it should exist can hardly create 

 surprise. 



A word more we must say of the late Master of the 

 Mint, in reference to the most recent of his researches 

 that which justified him, as he considered, in placing 

 hydrogen, under the name of Hydrogenium, among 

 the metallic bodies. We have little doubt that he was 

 right in ratifying a suspicion which had before been 

 broached to this effect. The singular resemblance to 

 metallic alloys of the compounds of hydrogen with 

 certain metals, scarcely admits of other conclusion than 

 that this gas, the lightest of all known matter, is itself 

 really the vapour of a very volatile metal ! The most 

 striking testimony is that derived from the absorption 

 of hydrogen by palladium amounting in some cases to 

 nearly 1,000 times the volume of the latter metal and 

 producing a compound strongly characterised in its 

 properties, as shown both in the results of charging with 



