278 
seems to have been carried on after a de- 
sultory fashion and was soon dropped, as if 
the workers were convinced of its useless- 
ness. The results, being negative, simply 
serve to show that no method was hit upon 
for decomposing the elements upon which 
the experiments were performed. Thus, 
for instance, Despretz performed a number 
of experiments to combat Dumas’ views as 
to the composite nature of the elements. 
Despretz made use of the well-known lab- 
oratory methods for the separation and 
purification of substances. Such were dis- 
tillation, electrolysis, fractional precipita- 
tion, etc. Such work was quite inadequate 
to settle the question, as Dumas had pointed 
out that unusual methods must be used, or, 
he might have added, the old methods car- 
ried out to an unusual or exhaustive extent, 
Certainly, if a moderate application of the 
usual methods was sufficient for this de- 
composition, evidences of it would have 
been obtained long ago by the host of care- 
ful workers who have occupied themselves 
over these substances. Crookes has busied 
himself with the method of fractional pre- 
cipitation (though not with special view to 
the testing of this question), and applied it 
most patiently and exhaustively to such 
substances as the rare earths, without ob- 
taining results from which anything con- 
clusive could be drawn. Victor Meyer 
seems to have believed that the decomposi- 
tion could be effected by high temperatures, — 
and was very hopeful of experiments which 
he had planned before his untimely death. 
Others have spasmodically given a little 
time to the problem, but no one has thought 
highly enough of it to attack it with all of 
his energy. 
Let us stop a moment and ask ourselves 
what would be attained if any one should 
succeed in decomposing an element by one 
of the usual methods. Has not this been 
done repeatedly in the past and merely 
served to add to the list of the elements? 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. X. No. 244. 
Didymium has been made toyield praseo and 
neodymium. That which was first called 
yttrium has been divided into erbium, ter- 
bium and ytterbium, and according to 
Crookes may possibly be still further de- 
composed. But these and similar decom- 
positions are not generally accepted as of- 
fering any evidence that elements can be 
decomposed. It is merely the discovery of 
one or more new substances which have re- 
mained hidden in constant association with 
known bodies which were supposed to be 
simple. It would be necessary to prove 
that a single individual element had, by 
the process adopted, been actually decom- 
posed and not some pre-existing impurity 
discovered. This, of course, would be ex- 
ceedingly difficult, and all such attempts as 
those mentioned can have little bearing 
upon the general question, and can hold out 
slight hope of reward beyond the fame 
springing from the discovery of a new 
element. 
Successful decomposition should mean 
much more. It should mean the discovery 
of a method which will decompose not one, 
but many or indeed, all of the elements, and 
the decomposition of these must not yield 
a larger number of supposedly simple bodies, 
but a small group of one or two or three 
‘which are common constituents of all. It 
is quite idle to venture upon any prediction 
whether such a method will ever be discov- 
ered. Setting aside, then, the direct ex- 
perimental proof of the composite nature of 
the elements as unattainable at present, let 
us next examine the indirect evidence. It 
would seem wisest for the present to intro- 
duce under that heading the spectroscopic 
work of Lockyer. The results, while highly 
interesting, are too indefinite as yet to speak 
of as having a direct bearing. Yet a care- 
ful study of the spectra of the elements 
leads us to a strong suspicion that the less 
plausible assumption is the one that the 
particles which give rise to such varied 
