ORIGIN OF ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES. 145 



The numerical relations of the atomic weights to which 

 I have directed attention^ and the brief outline of a theory 

 of the origin of elementary species which I have founded 

 upon them^ give new force to the doctrine of the trans- 

 mutable nature of elementary substances. But when the 

 synthetical formation of organic compounds is regarded as 

 the greatest triumph of modern chemical science^ the prob- 

 lem of building up the higher elements from the lower may 

 well be deemed insoluble^ as they have been formed under 

 cosmical conditions of which we have little or no acquaint- 

 ance. Very different, however, is the aspect of the problem 

 of resolving the higher elements of each series into their 

 respective types or into hydrogen. For just as by the 

 application of heat the higher members of homologous 

 series are resolved, through their lower members, into 

 their ultimates, so may it be expected that the elements 

 themselves will, in their turn, give way to more powerful 

 instruments of analysis. 



When it is considered that through the investigations 

 of Dumas, Cooke, Odling, Mendeleeff and others, nearly 

 all the mathematical relations of the atomic weights to 

 each other have been unfolded during the brief interval of 

 thirty years, so that but few steps are now required to 

 render the natural classification of the elements complete, 

 the resolution of elementary species into their primordial 

 ultimates would not appear to be far off. 



SER. in. VOL. X. 



