994 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 443. 



the chemical elements, the existence of 

 bodies smaller than atoms, the atomic na- 

 ture of electricity, the perception of elec- 

 trons, not to mention other dawning mar- 

 vels far removed from the lines of thought 

 usually associated with English chemistry. 



The earliest definite suggestion in the 

 last century of the possible compound na- 

 ture of the metals occurs in a lecture de- 

 livered in 1809* by Sir Humphry Davy 

 at the Royal Institution. In that memor- 

 able lecture he speculated on the existence 

 of some substance common to all the ele- 

 ments, and he averred that "If such gen- 

 eralizations should be supported by facts, 

 a new, a simple and a grand philosophy 

 would be the result. From the combina- 

 tion of diiferent quantities of two or three 

 species of ponderable matter we might 

 conceive all the diversity of material sub- 

 stances to owe their constitution." 



Again, in 1811, he said:t "It will be 

 useless to speculate upon the consequences 

 of such an advancement in chemistry as 

 that of the decomposition and composition 

 of the metals. * * * It is the duty of a 

 chemist to be bold in pursuit. He must 

 not consider things as impracticable merely 

 because they have not yet been effected. 

 He must not regard them as unreasonable 

 because they do not coincide with popular 

 opinion. He must recollect how contrary 

 knowledge sometimes is to what appears 

 to be experience. * * * To inquire whether 

 the metals be capable of being decomposed 

 and composed is a grand object of true 

 philosophy. ' ' 



Davy first used the term 'radiant mat- 

 ter' about 1809, but chiefly in connection 

 with what is now called radiation. He 

 also iised the term in another sense, and 

 the following passage J in its clear fore- 



* ' Works of Sir Humphry Davy,' Vol. VIII., 

 p. 325. 



■fLoo. cit., Vol. VIII., p. 330. 

 XLoc. cit., Vol. VIII., p. 349. 



cast is prophetic of the modern electron: 

 'If particles of gases were made to move 

 in free space with an almost infinitely 

 great velocity— t. e., to become radiant 

 matter— they might produce the different 

 species of rays, so distinguished by their 

 peculiar effects.' 



In his lectures at the Royal Institution, 

 in 1816, 'On the General Properties of 

 Matter,' another prescient chemist, Fara- 

 day, used similar terms when he said: 

 "If we conceive a change as far beyond 

 vaporization as that is above fluidity, and 

 then take into account also the proportion- 

 al increased extent of alteration as the 

 changes rise, we shall, perhaps, if we can 

 form any conception at all, not fall far 

 short of radiant matter; and as in the 

 last conversion many qualities were lost, 

 so here also many more would disappear." 

 again, in one of his early lectures he 

 strikes a forward note: "At present we 

 begin to feel impatient, and to wish for a 

 new state of chemical elements. To de- 

 compose the metals, to reform them, and 

 to realize the once absurd notion of trans- 

 mutation, are the problems now given to 

 the chemist for solution." 



But Faraday was always remarkable for 

 the boldness and originality with which he 

 regarded generally accepted theories. In 

 1844 he said, "The view that physical 

 chemistry necessarily takes of atoms is 

 now very large and complicated ; first many 

 elementary atoms— next compound and 

 complicated atoms. System within sys- 

 tem, like the starry heavens, may ie right 

 —but may he all wrong." 



A year later Faraday startled the world 

 by a discovery to which he gave the title 

 'On the Magnetization of Light and the 

 Illumination of the Magnetic Lines of 

 Force.' For fifty- years this title was 

 misunderstood and was attributed to en- 

 thusiasm or confused ideas. But to-day 



