90 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 472. 



These have not come about solely through 

 the additive labors of the savants men- 

 tioned, for they have been shaped quite as 

 much by speculative and experimental op- 

 position exemplified by Brodie* and Sterry 

 Ilunt.f 



In Graham's 'Speculative Ideas Respect- 

 ing the Constitution of Matter ';]; we have 

 the conception that our supposed elements 

 possess 'one and the same ultimate cr atomic 

 molecule existing in different conditions of 

 movement. § Apropos, we have the sug- 

 gestion of F. W. Clarke || that the evolu- 

 tion of planets from nebulse, according to 

 the hypothesis of Kant and Laplace, was 

 accompanied by an evolution of the ele- 

 ments themselves. Even Boyle— 'the cau- 

 tious and doubting Robert Boyle, ' as Hum- 

 boldt said of him— was inclined to the be- 

 lief that 'all matter is compounded of one 

 primordial substance — merely modifications 

 of the materia prima.' 



The Daltonian ideas had scarcely reached 

 adolescence before Prout (1815), giving 

 heed to the figures concerned, would have 

 all the elements compounded of hydrogen. 

 The classical atomic mass values obtained 

 by sympathetic Stas and the numerous in- 

 vestigations of those who followed him, 

 •with all the refinements human ingenuity 

 ias been able to devise, temporarily silenced 

 •such speculations, but not until Marignac 

 Law ' has been most helpful. I have, furthermore, 

 had the privilege of reading very carefully the 

 manuscript of a work entitled ' The Study of the 

 Atom' (in press), by Dr. Venable. 



* ' Calculus of Chemical Operations,' J. Ohem. 

 Soc, 21, 307 (1866), and his book, 'Ideal Chem- 

 istry,' 1880. 



f Numerous papers summarized in ' A New 

 Basis for Chemistry.' New York, 1887 and 1802 

 (fourth edition) . 



X Proc. Hoy. Boc, 1863. 



I Venable, ' The Definition of the Element,' vice- 

 presidential address, Section C, American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, Columbus 

 meeting, 1899. 



II ' Evolution and the Spectroscope,' Pop. Sc. M. 

 Jour., 1873. 



had halved the unit, Dumas had quartered 

 it, and Zangerle, as late as 1882, insisted 

 upon the one thousandth hydrogen atom. 



The notion, like Banquo's ghost, will ever 

 up, for if one may judge from the proba- 

 bility calculations of Mallet* and Strutt,t 

 a profound truth underlies the now crude 

 hypothesis. 



Crookes,'! from observations made during 

 prolonged and painstaking fractionations of 

 certain of the rare earths, supported his 

 previously announced 'provisional hypoth- 

 esis ' as to the genesis- of the elements from 

 a hypothetical protyle, which existed when 

 the universe was without form and void. 

 He designated those intermediate entities, 

 like yttrium, gadolinium and didymium, 

 ' meta-elements, '§ a species of compound 

 radicals, as it were. Urstoff, fire mist, pro- 

 tyle, the itltra-gaseous form, the fourth 

 state of matter || was condensed by a pro- 

 cess analogous to cooling; in short, the 

 elements were created. The rate of the 

 cooling and irregular condensation pro- 

 duced 'the atavism of the elements,' and 

 this caused the formation of the natural 

 families of the periodic system. MarignaeTJ 

 criticizing this hypothesis, states: "I have 

 always admitted** the impo.ssibility of ac- 

 counting for the curioias relations which are 

 manifested between the atomic weights of 

 the elements, except by the hypothesis by 

 a general method of formation according 

 to definite though unknown laws; even 

 when these relations have the character of 

 general and absolute laws." 



Further, "I do not the less acknowledge 



*PMl. Trans., 171, 1003, 1881. 



■f Phil. Mag. (6), 1, 311. 



J Chein. Neics, ,55, 83, 1886. 



I Address before Chemical Section of the Brit- 

 ish Association, Chem. News, 54, 117, 1885. 



II Crookes, lioyal Societies, June 10, 1880. 



^ Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 

 17-5; Chemical Netrs, 56, 39. 



**Remarks made in 1860-5 after publication of 

 Stas's ' Researches on Atomic Weights,' Archives, 

 9, 102, 24-376. 



