8 Wilde, Resolution of Elementary Stibstances. 



mutation from higher into lower members of each series 

 may manifest themselves, it is not to be expected that the 

 transmutation of the higher members of different series 

 into each other will be accomplished, e.g., mercury and 

 lead into gold, according to the notions of the alchemists. 



It would be premature to speculate upon the char- 

 acteristics of the missing element X = i6o of the series H2n 

 in my Table or upon those of X=I54 in the series Hn, 

 but the missing member X = 177 of this series, homologous 

 in position with radium =184, has special features of 

 interest, as it has very recently been shown by Strutt 

 that an intensely radio-active emanation is given off by 

 mercury'. It would be of interest to know if this emana- 

 tion — either from the metal itself or from the naturally 

 occurring minerals containing it — would lead to the 

 discovery of X=i77, or be resolved into the typical 

 element, Hi (hydrogen), as in the parallel case of radium 

 into helium in the series H2n. 



I have stated in a former paper the high probability 

 there is that some, if not all, of the typical elements at the 

 head of each series exist in a state of gas^ and the 

 gaseous character of the highest of these elementary 

 molecules (neon = H7) favours the supposition that the 

 remaining undiscovered typical elements H6, H5, H4, 

 H3, are also in the gaseous condition at ordinary 

 temperatures. It would be of further interest to know if 

 the emanations from thorium, uranium and bismuth 

 would resolve themselves into the elementary molecules 

 H3, H4, and H5, respectively. From the extremely 

 minute quantities of these elementary bodies to be found 

 in nature, their detection may only be possible by 

 observation of their characteristic spectra as in the case 

 of helium in the emanation from radium. 



^ Phil. Mag., July, 1903, p. 113. 



■^ Manchester Memoirs, Vol. XL,, p. 7, 1896. 



