I 



MR. CROOKES' THEORY OF PROTHYLE. 185 



tlon and crystallization, or they may also grapple 

 with the logical difficulty of conceiving a transition 

 from the unconscious to the conscious by theories 

 of '* mind-stuff " and the like. When once this 

 mauvais pas has been surmounted, evolutionism 

 finds more congenial material in the region of 

 chemical and physical theories. Indeed, the most 

 recent advances of chemical theory, as represented 

 by Mr. Crookes' doctrine of Protyle (prothyle ?),^ 

 enable it to construct an extremely interesting and 

 complete cosmogony. 



The importance of Mr. Crookes' views to the 

 theory of evolutionism is so great, and they have 

 as yet penetrated so little into the general culture 

 of the day, that no apology is needed for dwelling 

 on them at greater length than on the well-known 

 theories of Darwin and Spencer.^ 



§ 10. Chemists have for some time been struck 

 by the fact that a certain order and connection may 

 be detected among the " elements." The working 

 out of the periodic law, i.e., of the law of the natural 

 grouping of the elements, is now one of the chief 

 problems of theoretic chemistry. But to assert that 

 the elements are not only different, but differ in a 

 determinate manner, is to assert that there is a con- 

 nection underlying their differences. The fact that 

 the elements are capable of b^ing arranged in a 

 series, in groups of which the members resemble 

 one another more closely than they do those of other 



^ Prothyle is the proper form of the word, as it is the 

 " prote hyle " of Aristotle, derived through the medieval " yle." 

 We have ventured, therefore, to substitute the correcter form. 



2 For Mr. Crookes' views v. his Presidential Address to the 

 Chemical Society in May, 1888 {Journal of Chejn. Soc, p. 487). 

 Also his Address to the Chemical Section of the British Associa- 

 tion in 1886. 



