204 



DISCOVERY 



the atomic theon- was established at the beginning of 

 the last century and the atomic weights of some of the 

 elements determined, a chemist called Prout saw sim- 

 plicity in everything. The atomic weights were all 

 whole numbers, and therefore all the elements were 

 built up of hydrogen in some special way, he thought. 

 As work progressed this simplicity was found to be 

 superficial. Atomic weights were not whole numbers, 

 and the more accurately many of them were deter- 

 mined, the more did the results deviate from the simple 

 form to which the theorist (in an armchair, of course) 

 attempted to make them conform. The elements 

 appeared then to lack connection of any kind one 

 with each other. Later, in the seventies the periodic 

 system was put forward, a theory which indicated the 

 essential simplicity of the chemical elements and their 

 connection with each other, and which was sufficiently 

 enterprising to allow the properties of undiscovered 

 elements to be predicted. Yet subsequent research 

 revealed horrid doubts. There were a few exceptional 

 cases that could not be explained away by it. Was 

 everything really so simple ? When radio-activity 

 was discovered matters became worse, for the new ele- 

 ments revealed by it seemed to give the periodic system 

 its quietus. But no. Moseley's discovery of atomic 

 number, and the discovery of isotopes reinstated the 

 periodic system, explained the exceptional cases easily, 

 and revealed indeed that it was much more fundamental 

 in its truth than even its most ardent exponent had 

 imagined. It simplified everything, provided we think 

 of it in terms of atomic number and not, as the dis- 

 coverers of it did, in terms of atomic weight. Lastly, 

 Aston's work on isotopes in revealing the complexity 

 of the simple thing we imagined an elernent to be has 

 really made for simplicity, for, as I have stated above, 

 he has shown that the isotopes have simple numbers 

 as their atomic weights, suggesting that they are in all 

 probability compwunded in a very special way from the 

 very simplest elements hydrogen and helium. This, 

 indeed, is very like Prout's hypothesis, only Prout was 

 in the dark ; we, on the other hand, with a hundred 

 years of research to help us, are beginning to see. 



REFERENCES 

 F. W. Aston. Science Progress, October 1920. 

 C. G. Darwin, Xalure, vol. cvi, pp. 51, 81, and 116. 

 C. G. Darwin, Discovery, vol. i, p. 41. 

 A. S. Russell, Discovery, vol. i, p. 361. 



Tanning Materials. With Notes on Tanning Extract 

 Manufacture. By Arthlr H.\rvey. (Crosby 

 Lockwood & Son, 15s.) 

 A technical work which should be useful as a reference 

 work to tanners, students of the leather trade, and manu- 

 facturers interested. 



Hector v. Ajax: A 

 Myceneean Duel 



By W. H. Halliday, B.A., IJ.Litt. 



Professor 0/ Ancient Ilislory in the Unioersily 0/ Liucrpool 



The discoveries of our early years have a long life. 

 Two lucky " finds " in imaginative literature are 

 vivid memories of my own childhood, which was en- 

 dowed with that best of educations, the free run of a 

 library. There I stumbled first on D'Artagnan's journey 

 to Paris, which led to other breathless and inexhaustible 

 delights of Dumas ; and later upon a book, covered in 

 blue cloth, inscribed with the then unknown names of 

 Lang, Leaf, and Myers. The first introduction, which 

 Fortune thus arranged, to what I found to be the best 

 of story-books, was the combat of Hector and Ajax in 

 the seventh Book of the Iliad : and this recollection has 

 made it for me always a peculiarly favourite passage. 

 The episode is also of considerable historical and 

 archsological interest, for it describes a duel between 

 warriors armed with the weapons of the Mycenaan 

 period. 



The Book opens after Hector, the Trojan hero, has 

 taken leave of his wife Andromache and has shamed 

 some manhood into the trifier Paris ; sallying together 

 from the Sc;ean Gate of Troy, the two brothers are 

 making havoc in the Acha;an ranks. Athene descends 

 from heaven to the rescue of her Greeks, and Apollo 

 follows to prevent her from unfairly turning the 

 scale of battle against the Trojans. God and goddess 

 meet at the great oak tree and agree to stay the 

 conflict. Thereupon the wise seer Helenus prompts 

 Hector to check the Trojan charge and to challenge the 

 Achaeans to send a champion to meet him in single 

 combat. " It is not yet thy destiny to die and to meet 

 thy doom ; for thus I heard the voice of the gods that 

 are everlasting." Characteristic this, perhaps, of ro- 

 mantic epic, but to our minds a little unsportsmanlike. 

 Hector should not have known that he was safe in 

 throwing down the challenge. But if we can forget it — 

 and Hector may have been not so sure, for seers have 

 ere now made mistakes — the rest is on a high note of 

 chivalr}-. The battle isstayed and the stage forthe single 

 combat is set. " And Athene and Apollo of the silver 

 bow in the likeness of vulture birds sat them upon a tall 

 oak, holy to regis-bearing Father Zeus, rejoicing in 

 their warriors ; and the ranks of all of them sate close 

 together, bristling with shields and plumes and spears. 

 Even as there spreadeth across the main the ripple of 

 the west wind newly risen and the sea grows black 



