SCIENCE 



Friday, November 9, 1917 



CONTENTS 

 The Structure of Atoms and the Evolution of 

 the Elements as related to the Composition 

 of the Nuclei of Atoms : Peofessor William 

 D. Habkins 443 



Tlie Care of Wounded Soldiers 448 



Deaths among Ornithologists 450 



Scientific Events: — 



War Service for Chemists; The Mayo Foun- 

 dation; The Connaught Laboratories of the 

 University of Toronto; The Annual Meeting 

 of the Federation of American Societies for 

 Experimental Biology; The Pittsburgh 

 Meeting of the American Society of Natu- 

 ralists 451 



Scientific Notes and News 454 



University and Educational News 456 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



The "Age and Area" Hypothesis of Willis: 

 Dr. E. W. Sinnott. Erasmus Darwin and 

 Benjamin FranMin: W. C. Peckham 457 



Quotations : — 

 The Physique of Secruits 460 



Scientific BooTcs: — 

 Sealy on Mental Conflicts and Misconduct : 

 Professor R. S. Woodworth. Shepardson 

 on Telephone Apparatus : A. E. K 461 



Special Articles : — 

 Anesthesia and Respiration : A. E. C. Haas. 

 The Life History of the Clothes Moth: Dr. 

 Ealph C. Benedict. A Chromosome Differ- 

 ence correlated with Sex Differences: Dr. 

 Charles E. Allen 462 



The American Astronomical Society: Dr. 

 Joel Stebbins 467 



ivISS. ictended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review sboulc be aent to The Editor of Science, Garriaon-on- 

 Hudaon, N. ¥. 



THE STRUCTURE OF ATOMS AND THE 

 EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTS 

 AS RELATED TO THE COM- 

 POSITION OF THE 

 NUCLEI OF 

 ATOMS. 

 II 



The elements have thus been found to 

 fall into two series : first, those of even, and 

 second, those of odd, atomic number. Now, 

 if the theory presented for the structure of 

 the atoms is correct, then it should be pos- 

 sible to find some difference between the 

 two series with reference to their proper- 

 ties. Since, however, this part of the 

 theory refers specifically to the structure 

 of the nuclei of the atoms, and not to the 

 arrangement of the external or non-nu- 

 clear electrons, it is evident that this dif- 

 ference should not be found in those prop- 

 erties due to the external electrons, that is 

 in the chemical or physical properties. On 

 the other hand, the difference should be 

 found in any properties inherent in the 

 nucleus, and the only property, aside from 

 mass and weight (from which our system 

 has been developed), which has thus far 

 been discovered, and which is due to the 

 structure of the nucleus of the atom, is that 

 of atomic stability. Thus, if an atom loses 

 outer electrons, it does not change its 

 atomic number, and therefore does not 

 change to another element, but if it loses 

 nuclear electrons, it does change its nu- 

 cleus, its atomic number is changed, and 

 the atom is said to disintegrate — that is, it 

 changes into the atom of another element. 



Our theory therefore indicates a prob- 

 able general difference in stability between 

 the even- and odd-numbered elements. A 



