16 . Prof. E. C. C. Baly on 



the opposite poles o£ which are localized in two opposite 

 faces o£ the atoms. 



Let it be supposed that two atoms of different elements 

 are brought together in such a way that their mutually 

 attracting faces come together. They will at once tend to 

 form an addition complex, which can lose energy in the 

 manner described in the preceding paper. The two atoms 

 radiate equal amounts of energy as a whole number of 

 elementary quanta whereby the resulting molecule becomes 

 endowed with the frequency based on the least common 

 multiple of the atomic frequencies. This molecule is now 

 rendered a stable entity, and can only be resolved into its 

 atoms by absorbing an amount of energy equal to that lost 

 in its formation. This quantity of energy consists of a 

 definite number of true molecular quanta. 



As will be noticed, however, in this suggestion that the 

 reactivity of atoms for one another is due to the attraction 

 of their respective force fields and that their combination 

 consists in their joint loss of equal amounts of energy, no 

 account has been taken of the other faces of these combining 

 atoms. Whereas the combination of the atoms produces a 

 molecule characterized by a specific energy quantum, it is 

 not possible to consider that the force fields due to external 

 atomic faces can exist without influence on one another. 

 These external force lines must condense to form an external 

 molecular force field, and in this process energy must be 

 evolved. It was not possible previously to determine the 

 amount of energy lost by each molecule in this process, but 

 the theory of elementary and molecular quanta put forward 

 in the preceding paper now enables this to be done with 

 accuracy. It was shown that a freshly-synthesized molecule 

 is characterized by a definite molecular quantum, and hence 

 by a specific frequency in the short-wave infra-red, which 

 has been called the infra-red fundamental frequency. When 

 a freshly-synthesized molecule loses energy as a whole, it 

 must do so in quanta at the infra-red fundamental; and thus 

 it would follow that, when the external force fields of the 

 component atoms of a freshly-synthesized molecule condense 

 together to form the molecular force field, the system loses 

 energy in quanta at the infra-red fundamental of that mole- 

 cule. Clearly the molecule itself will not suffer any loss of 

 individuality as far as its characteristic frequencies are 

 concerned. None of the deductions from the conception of 

 elementary and molecular quanta made in the preceding- 

 paper will be contradicted, and the only change accompanying 

 the formation of the molecular force field will be the 



