Ii6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI II. No. 447 



of tbis kind," says Clerk Maxwell, " cannot be applied to the 

 case of molecules, for the individual molecules neither are 

 born nor die; they have neither parents nor offspring; and 

 so far from being modified by their environment, we find 

 that two molecules of the same kind, say of hydrogen, have 

 the same properties, though one has been compounded with 

 carbon and buried in the earth as coal for untold ages, while 

 the other has been occluded in the iron of a meteorite, and 

 after unknown wanderings in the heavens has at last fallen 

 into the hands of some terrestrial chemist." 



When we attempt to apply the process of discriminative 

 destruction the trouble increases, for "we should have to 

 account for the disappearance of all the molecules which did 

 not fall under one of the very limited number of kinds known 

 to us; and to get rid of a number of indestructible bodies 

 exceeding by far the number of the molecules of all the 

 recognized kinds, would be one of the severest labors ever 

 proposed to a cosmogonist." The "missing links" would 

 form the principal chain. 



But Mr. Crookes finds, by means of an interpretative illus- 

 tration of the periodic law, an explanation of the formation 

 of matter out of protyle with segregatian into atoms of defi- 

 nite valence and proximate molecular weight. 



The discovery of the periodic law of chemical elements 

 was a long stride in scientific progress. It bids fair to be as 

 masterful in chemistry as universal gravitation in astronomy, 

 and a certain analogy may be traced between them. The 

 planets have certain orbits around the sun, and velocities of 

 revolution proportional to their mass Did position fix their 

 mass, or mass determine their position ? By the periodic 

 law, the atom having a certain mass or weight falls into a 

 certain position. Is the mass of an atom determined by its 

 position, and not rather the position determined by its mass ? 

 Does the periodic law require us to consider the properties of 

 matter as mathematical functions of numbers, and thus re- 

 produce the Pythagorean philosophy of number and har- 

 mony, that "all things are number, and that number is the 

 essence of everything — the elements of numbers are the ele- 

 ments of existence." Or have position and force acquired 

 the properties of matter ? 



If there was ever a fiank movement on Nature by which 

 she has been compelled to surrender a part of her secrets it 

 was the discovery of the spectroscope, " which enables us to 

 peer into the very heart of nature." It is the "Open sesame" 

 of physics and chemistry. If biology could lay its hands on 

 a similar instrument to unlock the secrets of life, what fields 

 of discovery would unfold before the explorer ! 



By means of the spectroscope we may question the very 

 elements and submit them to cross-examination in the court 

 of science. Surprising results have thus been reached, but 

 the trend seems to be all in one direction, to show the com- 

 plex nature of what was supposed to be simple matter, that 

 didymium, e.g., was not a simple body, but contained at least 

 two metals, was twin in more senses than one. It was much 

 the same as Davy's showing that potash was not a simple 

 body, anomalous among chemical substances, but contained 

 a metal, and thus fell into line in chemical combinations. 

 But does the discovery of even a nest full of metals where 

 only yttrium was supposed to be require the assumption of 

 meta-metals, stuff which has not yet grown to the full 

 measure of a metal ; shall we suppose that each ultissimum 

 elementum has only one line in the spectrum, and that the 

 spectroscope will yet reveal swarms of meta-metals in the 

 chemical system, just as the telescope calls out the countless 

 stars from the Milky Way ? 



On the other hand, does the splitting up of the rare metals 

 justify the assumption that the metals most fixed in charac- 

 ter, and which show no tendency to split into meta-metals, 

 such as gold and platinum, are compound in constitution 

 and may be compounded out of baser materials ? Crookes's 

 suggestion that what comes to us as copper has been shunted 

 on to the wrong track in its passage from aboriginal ele- 

 mental matter to make gold, holds out small hope to metallic 

 transmutation. 



In the use of the scientific imagination few men can com- 

 pare with the editor of the Chemical News. Let us briefly 

 follow Mr, Crookes in his scheme of the genesis of the ele- 

 ments out of ante elemental material, — protyle, urstoff, im- 

 material matter, out of which matter may be formed by a 

 process of condensation through the cooling down of the 

 original flre-mist until it acquires elemental properties. By 

 a process of polymerization of protyle, or reduplication of 

 dissociated matter, with fall of temperature and acquisition 

 of difl'erent amounts of electricity, he supposes the elements 

 are evolved as known to us. Assuming the periodic law of 

 Newlands and Mendeleeff, he pictures to the mind how the 

 elements may have been formed out of matter in the ultra- 

 gaseous condition by cooling down below the temperature of 

 elemental dissociation, when out of the swarming myriads 

 of ultra-elemental matter the elements may group into knots 

 at nodal points. Around a central line, electrically, mag- 

 netically, and chemically neutral, the length of the line 

 marking the fall of cosmic temperature, the mighty gravita- 

 tive force swings like a pendulum, but with lemniscate mo- 

 tion through space of three dimensions, and thus the atoms 

 are formed and the elements appear, from hydrogen to 

 uranium. The outward swing gives the electro-positive ele- 

 ments; the inward swing forms the electro-negative, the de- 

 gree of electrization determines the atomicity, and the posi- 

 tion on the left or right of the neutral line determines the 

 magnetic quality — paramagnetic or diamagnetic. 



Such a scheme of the genesis of the elements fires the 

 imagination with the loftiest conceptions, so many things fall 

 into line and order. The very hiding place of missing ele- 

 ments seems to be pointed out, and newly discovered metals 

 fall into their fore-ordained place prepared for them before 

 the foundation of the worlds. It would seem presumptuous 

 to question a theory so beautiful and satisfying, but its foun- 

 dations are assumptions of a sweeping character. If we 

 concede the existence of matter without the properties of 

 matter, we have yet to learn how it can acquire the proper- 

 ties of matter. If we concede that it is ultra-material be- 

 cause of heat, how can it part with heat before it acquires 

 radiant power, a property of matter ? We might also be 

 tempted to inquire, what has become of the heat which once 

 held the universe in the ultra gaseous condition ? 



Nor is the theory of the successive formation of elementary 

 atoms, with their progressive increase of atomic weight by 

 reason of the fall of temperature below the point of elemental 

 dissociation, entirely satisfactory. It is claimed that hydro- 

 gen and then lithium first appear in the elemental condensa- 

 tion, because with them the diminution of temperature at 

 which elemental dissociation ceases is reached first of all, the 

 heat being still too great for other bodies to exist even as 

 elements. The heavy metals, such as platinum and gold, 

 with large atomic weight, are formed later in time, because 

 a vast reduction of cosmic heat was necessary before dissocia- 

 tion would cease and elemental consociation become possible. 

 Do platinum and gold give indications of a tendency to dis- 

 sociation more marked than that of lithium when questioned 



