16 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
Meyer’s atomic volume curve, drawn with the latest values for both 
atomic weight and specific gravity. On the same,sheet was also 
drawn a similar curve, illustrating the connection between atomic 
weight and melting point, and it was shown that in the latter the 
highest portions correspond to the lowest depressions in the atomic 
volume curve. The opinion was expressed, in view of the regu- 
larities exhibited by these curves, that the elements had originated 
by some method of evolution, and that a future transmutation of 
one element into another was not improbable. 
In reply to a question by Mr. Farquhar, Mr. CLARKE said that 
search was being made for similar evidence of system in the spectra 
of the elements, but that the subject was rendered difficult by 
reason of the fact that not all the lines of the spectra fall within 
the range of visibility. 
' Mr. ANTISELL remarked that while the determination of the 
atomic weights of the elements was one of the most important 
labors which the modern chemist could be occupied with until a 
final constant numerical result should be arrived at, and until the 
other properties of matter which appear to have some definite 
relation with the atomic weight were rigidly investigated, there was 
necessity for continued effort to search into those hidden relations; 
but if by such investigation it was believed that we could arrive at 
any certainty about atoms, their form and structure, or about matter 
itself, we should be much disappointed. Situated as we are on a 
cold planet, we are precluded from ever arriving, by the study of 
matter from a standpoint merely terrestrial, at any ideas of the 
ultimate nature of atom or molecule, or whether there be really 
any such thing as “elements” or one form of matter wholly dis- 
tinct from another. ‘To arrive at a knowledge of matter, pure and 
simple, we must have ready means for dissociating all compound 
matter, and we have at our command at present no such methods 
or apparatus on this globe. Subjection to intense heat is required, 
and our most glowing furnaces and the are light itself is insufficient 
for the purpose. It calls for the exhibition of such heat as is pro- 
duced in the sun and its atmosphere to reduce our elements, as we 
term them, to the more simple condition of matter as it exists under 
solar temperature, and the present spectroscope and its.future im- 
provements by which such dissociation is to be studied. The 
