INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 291 



If the view.s sot forth in this paper are correct, there exist four suc- 

 cessive forms of matter. Two are l^nowu to us by experience; the 

 first and the last are as 3'et hypothetical. 



The first form is that exhibited by the ether. 



The second that of ordinar}^ matter, formed t)f atoms which are, 

 according- to our view, only condensed energy in a special state, from 

 which result form, weight, and fixity. 



The third form, with which dissolution commences, is represented 

 by the so-called electric atom, a substance intermediate between ordi- 

 nar}^ matter and the ether — that is to say, between the ponderable and 

 the imponderable. The matter has lost its weight, its inertia is no 

 longer constant, and its fixity seems to be transitory. 



The last phase of the existence of matter would be that in which the 

 electric atom, having lost its individuality — that is to say, its fixity — 

 disappears in the ether. This would be the final term of the dissocia- 

 tion of matter, the final nirvana, into which it seems that everything 

 must return after an ephemeral existence. 



Yet these are merelv interpretations. We must not depart from the 

 facts set forth and which have proved that atoms become dissociated. 



Since, too, we have proved that this dissociation is a general phe- 

 nomenon, we are authorized to conclude that the doctrine of invaria- 

 bility of atomic weights, on which all modern chemistry is founded, is 

 only a deceptive appearance, resulting entirely from the want of sensi- 

 tiveness in balances. If they were sensitive to the millionth of a 

 milligram, they would show that all our chemical laws are merely 

 approximations. If balances were capable of such precision, we should 

 soon show that under many circumstances, and particularly during 

 chemical reactions, the atom loses a part of its weight. We are then 

 authorized to conclude, contrar}^ to the principle stated b}" Lavoisier 

 as the basis of chemistry, that we never find in a chemical com- 

 bination the total weight of the bodies emploj-ed to produce that 

 combination." 



The correctness of this capital fact begins to be recognized by emi- 

 nent physicists. For example, recently before the Physical Society of 



« We are already beginning to prove this experimentally by using extremely sensi- 

 tive balances and operating during a sufficiently long time. " By the aid of a balance 

 of great precision," writes M. Lucien Poincare, "MM. Landv/olt and Heydweiler 

 have weighed numerous bodies before and after the action of chemical changes which 

 those bodies set up, and these two very expert and very cautious physicists have not 

 been afraid to announce the sensational result that under certain circumstances the 

 weight is not the same before and after the reaction. To particularize, the weight of a 

 solution of sulphate of copper in water is not the exact sum of the weight of the salt 

 and the Aater." (Revue des Sciences, January, 1903, p. 96.) 



