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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 65 



section through the condensed group of fourteen would give us : 



(cf. 



and 



) . It may be seen 



from this that the group would have a certain degree of intrinsic 

 stability, although not nearly so much as the more symmetrical and 

 mobile group of eight. In the same way the O a molecule may con- 

 tain a transitory group of twelve, which can be pictured by imagining 

 config. 1 to have three coils in each vertical row instead of two : a 

 condensed group of ten for the N 2 molecule is not so easy to imagine, 

 but the same oscillation of the " negative " function can take place 



there: N^N)^(n^N (where A represents a pair of free mag- 

 netons. A bond of this kind, which allows of the more or less 

 rapid oscillation of the " negative " function (i. e., of the group-of- 

 eight formation) between two atoms, with the intermediate forma- 

 tion of a condensed group, will be called the negative bond. 

 Diagrammatically, then, the CI atom may be represented : 



and the whole behavior of the CI, molecule 



Since we have called the bond in (CHHCl) the negative bond, 

 that in H — H may appropriately be called the positive bond, and 



