38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 65 



which it has been attempted to explain as due to electrostatic induction 

 between molecules will be found to be more plausibly ascribed to a 

 magnetic induction. It should be noted that the electrostatic induc- 

 tion, which must of course occur, would often have much the same 

 effect as the magnetic induction described above, especially in actions 

 between separate molecules ; but there is much in the infra-molecular 

 influences in carbon compounds that can be explained by the latter 

 conception only. This I hope to discuss in a future paper, but it may 

 be pointed out now that the two effects (electrostatic and magnetic) 

 are closely interdependent, according to the present theory, for elec- 

 tric polarization of a molecule has its origin in a rearrangement of 

 magnetons to form the group of eight. 



§12. Unsaturation in Inorganic Compounds 



This only occurs when an atom, acting positively, has a valence less 

 than its maximum ; for negative valence is fixed — for example, an 

 atom with six valence magnetons can part with any number up to six, 

 but to make up a group of eight within itself it must take in exactly 

 two. The formula? 



C 



C1 ' ^ ^ ^ 



4o), (SVpCX, (o¥s4o), 



CI 





(5)=N-(o)-N=@ 





explain themselves. In most of such molecules the unsaturated atom 

 has a pair of free magnetons, which is represented by the symbol A • 

 This tendency of free magnetons to go in pairs is referred to again 

 below. 



Now these free magnetons may be expected to produce two effects 

 in the molecule. One is obvious : it is a tendency to form the cor- 

 responding saturated molecule, C0 2 , PC1 5 , S0 3 , N 2 5 , N„0 4 , and so 

 lower the magnetic energy. But this must always raise the electric 

 energy — e. g., in S0 2 the S atom has lost four magnetons, in SO s 

 six — and that tends to oppose saturation. The point of equilibrium 

 between these two tendencies, apart from metastable conditions of 

 the molecule, will naturally be further and further from the point of 

 saturation as we pass from group IV to group VIII of the Periodic 

 Scheme : an inspection of the oxides in these groups shows that this 

 prediction agrees with the facts. 



