374 [F">c BJsr.F.c, 



chemical elements of comparatively light atomic weight, and 

 belonging to the first three octaves of these elements. The 

 further we go up these chemical octaves the heavier do the 

 elements become. Thus far, we have only got the length of 

 Iron, which is 56 Hydrogens ; while Thorium and Uranium, 

 the/ourth and sixth of the eleventh octave are respectively 232 

 and 239*8 Hydrogens. 



And now, are these chemical elements themselves also 

 buildings ? 



Norman Lockyer says, in an article in The Nineteenth 

 Century for 1879, on "the Chemical Elements." "I have 

 recently announced to the Royal Society that, reasoning from 

 the phenomena presented to us in the Spectroscope when known 

 compounds are decomposed, I have obtained evidence that the 

 so-called elementary bodies are in reality compound ones. The 

 spectra of the sun and the stars have all been recorded and 

 considered ; and in the science of Comparative Stellar Chemistry 

 it has been stated that there are Four Genera of stars 

 recognisable by their spectra. In the brightest, and presumably 

 the hottest genus, the atmosphere consists of only 2 substances, 

 Hydrogen and Calcium. In the second genus of stars, and our sun 

 belongs to this second genus, Hydrogen, Calcium, Magnesium, 

 Sodium, &c, come in. In the third genus the chemicals 

 discovered are those of increasing atomic weight, and Hydrogen, 

 the lightest, disappears. And in the Fourth genus, the coolest 

 of the stars, there are fluted spectra ol metals and metaloids.'' 

 He adds, " I have no hesitation in stating my opinion, that 

 in this line of facts, we have the most important outcome 

 of Solar work during the last ten years ; and if there were none 

 others in suppport of them the conclusion would still stare us 

 in the face that the running down of temperature in a mass of 

 matter is accompanied by a gradually increasing complexity of 

 chemical forms." And Lockyer adds — "that in this work 

 experimentalists have taken for granted that in the spectrum 

 thus produced they have been dealing with the Vibrations of 

 one specific thing, call it atom, molecule, or what you will, 



