JANUARY 22, 1914] 
under the influence of physico-chemical processes of 
the same order as those that must have been operative 
in the past. 
* * % * + 
In my work entitled ‘‘The Nature and Origin of 
Living Matter,’ an abridgment of which has been 
published by the Rationalist Press Association,’ I 
have considered the question of ‘spontaneous genera- 
tion” from a broader point of view (pp. 128-141), and 
have endeavoured to show how multitudes of facts 
can be explained in accordance with my views, that 
from the time when living matter first appeared upon 
the earth it has probably ever been constantly re- 
appearing, as at present, and giving birth to the 
simplest living units, such as now swarm upon its 
surface. These processes are such that they must 
always take place beyond our ken, seeing that they 
necessarily begin with mere molecular collocations, 
gradually going on to the formation of particles of 
zn ultra-microscopic order. Such infinitesimal par- 
ticles gradually emerge into the region of visible 
things as revealed by high powers of the microscope, 
and take on this or that simple organic form in a 
manner that (though by processes much more com- 
plicated) is somewhat akin to the mode by which 
crystals emerge from different mother liquors, and 
take on this or that particular crystalline form. 
Thus, while the fact of the present occurrence of 
the de novo origin of living matter is, in my opinion, 
beyond the region of doubt, I fully recognise that 
the actual steps of the process remain to be discovered. 
I have elsewhere referred to some of the probable 
steps of the process, and the prominent part that may 
be taken by inorganic catalysers under the influence 
of sunlight, and in some quite recent experiments 
by Prof. Benjamin Moore and J. A. Webster, in a 
paper entitled “Synthesis by Sunlight in Relationship 
to the Origin of Life,’’* they have been able to demon- 
strate the probable actual first step of such a process 
—one that is known to occur as a first step in the 
nutrition of plants. We are, however, as yet only on 
the threshold of anything like an explanation of the 
various stages of this supreme mystery, for the un- 
ravelling of which philosophers and chemists have 
hitherto striven in vain. As with many other natural 
phenomena, the fact of the occurrence of which cannot 
be questioned, so here only conjectures are available 
as to the precise mode in which it may have been 
brought about. We must, however, repose our faith 
in the uniformity of natuy il phenomena, as one of the 
cardinal postulates of science, and if living matter had 
a natural origin in the far-distant past, there is, from 
that point of view, good ground for believing what 
our experiments seem to testify, that it also occurs at 
the present day. H. Cuartton Bastian. 
Atomic Models and X-Ray Spectra. 
Ir is universally assumed that the atom of an 
element can forma Saturnian system with more than 
one ring of rotating electrons, and this idea is used 
in particular by Moseley in the theoretical discussion 
of his recent experiments. But in an Adams prize 
essay, not yet published in extenso, this is shown to 
be impossible. If the law of repulsion between two 
electrons, or of attraction between electron and 
nucleus, is that of the inverse square, more than one 
coplanar ring cannot exist. All the electrons in any 
plane must lie in the same ring, and even if they are 
in different planes, the radii of the rings must be 
nearly equal. A consideration of a simple case will 
5 Watts and Co., 1910. 
® “ The Origin of Life,” 2nd*edition, 1913, pp. 6r-65. 
7 Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. 593, p. 163. 
NO. 2308, VOL. 92| 
NATURE 
583 
illustrate this. For example, it is at first sight prob- 
able that the system in the accompanying diagram, 
consisting of two coplanar rings 
of three electrons each, sym- 
metrically arranged with all the 
angles equal to 60°, can exist with 
some angular velocity wo, if the 
radii of the outer and inner rings 
are a and b, the latter being much 
smaller than a. But it is easily 
shown that the conditions of steady rotation of such 
a system are— 
mo N re yt I h—-2a I 
Sv S » ~~ - nee em ye a> W ” » a 
e V3 a a(at+b)y a (a2 + — ab) 
=(N oe \ I 2h =a ~ I 
N3 P bat by b (a? +h? - aby 
and the resulting equation for the ratio b/a has only 
one root b/a=1, whatever value be attached to N, 
where Ne is the charge on the nucleus. Any other 
simple case which is tried will be found to lead to the 
same conclusion. 
This conclusion not only belongs to any ordinary 
dynamical theory of the rings, but to Bohr’s theory 
also. For Bohr supposes that the steady rotation 
of the system can be derived by ordinary mechanics, 
and, in fact, the equation so derived is vital to his 
formula for spectra. If Bohr’s theory is to remain— 
and it is so attractive that its retention is desirable, in 
the writer’s opinion—we must give up the idea of 
concentric rings in the atom, with X-radiation coming 
from an inner ring. For any way of avoiding the 
present conclusion, for example, by making a change 
in the law of attraction in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of the nucleus, at once destroys the formula on 
which Moseley bases his view that his experiments 
support Bohr’s theory. 
How then, if there is only one ring of electrons, and 
if X-radiation is due to a ring—a- point on which 
Moseley has given a cogent reason for doubt—do6es 
X-radiation originate? The answer is that without 
a serious reduction in its radius, the single ring may, 
on Bohr’s theory, give radiation of the X-ray type. 
For Bohr’s spectral formula for an atom with nucleus 
Ne and n electrons is 
CE said ap es Pee CY Limb 
pas (MN -Su(4-4) 
where a in the Balmer series is 2, and f takes integral 
values. But the principal line given by the formula 
corresponds to a=1, B=2, and its wave-length in em. is 
at once found to be 
IZ1S 7. TOSS 
NSF 
To obtain a wave-length (1=3-368.10-°, Moseley’s 
value for calcium, we only require N~S,=18-98, 
which Moseley interprets as meaning N=20, n=4. 
Thus a ring which gives the ordinary hydrogen spec- 
trum when N=r can give an X-ray spectrum when 
N=20, in spite of the enormous difference of wave- 
length concerned. But the radius would not be so 
widely different in the two cases. For in the normal 
atom it is inversely as N—S,, and since on Bohr’s 
view, the radius of a hydrogen atom is 5-5.10-° cm., 
that of calcium would be 3:10~-'°, quite a possible 
value. 
There is ground, accordingly, for retaining Bohr’s 
theory, if only one ring exists, and then the calcium 
X-ray spectrum means exactly the same thing as the 
ordinary hydrogen spectrum, and no element should 
show such X-ray spectra until N becomes large. The 
X-ray or Balmer spectrum of helium, for example, 
