102 J. N. Lockyer on the supposed Compound 
The next point I considered was to obtain a clear mental view 
of the manner in which, on the principle of evolution, various 
a might now be formed, and then become basic themselves, 
id not seem unnatural that the bases should increase their 
sentgildxity by a process of continual multiplication, the factor 
being 1, 2, or even 8, if conditions were available under which 
the temperature of their environment should decrease, as we 
imagined it to do from the furnace A down to furnace D. is 
would bring about a condition of molecular complexity in which 
the proportion of the molecular weight of a substance so pro- 
duced in a combination with another substance would go on 
continually increasing. 
Another method of increasing molecular complexity would 
be represented by the addition of molecules of different origins. 
ccna t the Se method by A+A, we could represent 
due to calcium, others to iron, and so forth. The inquiry ne 
this form, granting that these lines are special to such and such 
a substance, does each become basic in turn as the temperature 
is change d? 
I therefore began the inquiry by reviewing the evidence 
concerning calcium and seeing if hydrogen, iron and lithium 
behaved in the same way. 
Application of the above Views to Iron, Lithium, and Hydroge 
Calcium.—It was in a communication to the Roya 
made some time ago (Proceedings, vol. xxii, p. 380, 1874), that 
I first referred to the possibility that the well-known line-spect!@ 
of the elementary bodies might not result from the vib: bration 
of similar molecules. I was led to make the remark in conse 
quence of the differences to which I have.already drawn atte 
n in the spectra of certain elements as observed in the 
spectrum of the sun “a” in those obtained with the ordinary 
instrumental appliances : 
Later (Proc. Roy. Soc., No. 168, 1876) I produced Ts e 
that the molecular grouping of calcium ft with om 
induction-coil and small jar, gives a spectrum ‘with its chiet 
line in the blue, is nearly broken up in the sun, and quite — 
roken up in the ischarge from a ane coil and jar, 
another or others with lines in the viole 
