PROBLEMS OF CHEMISTRY 307 



the elements that are eventually to occupy them are prob 

 ably hidden away somewhere in the earth, they have thus 

 far eluded the chemist. 



As regards the character of the relationships that exist 

 between the elements, it is difficult, or, rather, quite impos- 

 sible, to speak with confidence. Apparently, the elements 

 are brothers and sisters. We want to find the fathers and 

 mothers. But it appears that they are no longer living. 

 The plain question that we cannot help asking is : Have the 

 elements existed from the beginning of time, or have they 

 been formed from a smaller number of simpler forms of 

 matter? Of course, one can speculate on such a subject, 

 but can one speculate profitably? It may as well be 

 acknowledged at once that we know practically nothing in 

 regard to the origin of the elements, or of the cause of the 

 relationships that are so easily recognized. 



It has been suggested that the elements are tfie products 

 of an evolutionary process that has been in progress from 

 the beginning, and that they all owe their existence to a 

 primordial form of matter, simpler than any one of the 

 so-called elements. Some evidence in favor of this view 

 seems to be furnished by the spectroscopic examination of 

 celestial bodies. The nebulae have been shown to contain 

 the smallest number of our chemical elements; the hotter 

 stars are somewhat more complex; in the colored stars and 

 the sun a large number of elements appear; while the 

 planets are the most complex. The complexity seems to 

 depend upon the temperature. The higher the tempera- 

 ture, the smaller the number of kinds of matter present. 

 Now, may it not be that the elements known to us are 

 derived from simpler forms, or from one single simplest 

 form? We can only answer it may. If this is the true 

 conception of the relations between the elements, then "in 

 the beginning" space must have been filled with an incan- 

 descent vapor made up of the simplest form of matter. As 

 this has cooled, it has taken other forms, and some of these 

 are the things we now call elements. But this shows how 



