﻿774 Construction of Cubic Crystals with Theoretical Atoms. 



of error o£ our knowledge of the distribution of the electrons. 

 If the radius of the outside ring of electrons in chlorine 

 were about 13 instead of 11a* units above, and that in sodium 

 about 11 instead of 10, this would make the values in (69) 

 and (66) agree. 



There are many fundamental questions that have probably 

 suggested themselves to those who have followed the subject 

 here presented; and the belief that they will receive a satis- 

 factory answer increases with the progress of the work. 

 Other forms of crystals than the cubic system must be 

 explained, as well as the combinations of elements known to 

 chemistry. This latter, of course, need not be restricted to 

 the neutral atom, but the former most likely is. It is 

 probable that alternative forms of stable crystals will be 

 found with the same combinations of atoms, and the most 

 stable of these is likely to be the one that exists in nature, 

 though sometimes there may be more than one. 



One important matter that should be emphasized is made 

 evident by a study of the cubic crystal in fig. 1. There 

 is the same number of chlorine atoms in rock-salt that have 

 their axes pointing in any given direction as in the exact 

 opposite direction, and so of sodium. The total magnetic 

 effect of the crystal is, therefore, very small. Were this not 

 the case, and if there were an excess in one direction more 

 than another, there would be an aggregate giving a strong 

 unbalanced magnetic force, and the crystal would be magnetic. 

 It is to be noticed that the magnetic component in this crystal 

 varies as the inverse fourth power of the distance from the 

 atom while the electrostatic varies as the sixth power. At 

 great distances, therefore, only the magnetic force can prevail, 

 the electrostatic being a negligible quantity in comparison; 

 and if the axes of the atoms are so turned on the whole as to 

 cancel their magnetic components, the structure is non- 

 magnetic. 



The ability to magnetize the substance by an outside force 

 must depend upon the degree of stability of the turning 

 moments which have been considered in detail in the paper. 

 It is quite possible that in iron we have a peculiar case where 

 the translational equilibrium is very stable, but the turning 

 moments are in almost neutral equilibrium. Such a con- 

 dition will explain the unique properties of iron, nickel, and 

 cobalt. 



The fact that the action between two magnetic poles in 

 iron is inversely as the square of the distance instead of 



