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LXI. Construction of Compound Molecules with Theoretical 

 Atoms, especially the Systems of Growth of the Organic 

 Compounds of Carbon and Hydrogen, By Albert C. 

 Crehore, Ph.D.* (From the Department of Physiology 

 of Columbia University.) 



[Plates VI1I.-XIL] 



HAVING obtained equations f for the mechanical force 

 with which one atom acts upon another, and found 

 that they enable us to construct crystals having properties 

 which agree with those found in nature, a further test of 

 this theory of the atom has been found in the building of the 

 molecules of chemical compounds with the same atoms 

 employed in crystal building. The present paper is a preli- 

 minary account of the results obtained in an attempt to 

 explain some of the complex phenomena connected with the 

 hydrocarbon compounds of organic chemistry. This line of 

 investigation is chosen first because a very complete description 

 of both the hydrogen and the carbon atoms has been obtained ; 

 and if we are successful in getting any light upon the possible 

 ways in which these two kinds of atoms may unite into 

 compound molecules, the results must be typical of all 

 compound-forming processes. The results described are, so 

 far as they go, in agreement with the well-known systems 

 of organic chemistry. 



lite Distinction between a Crystal and a Compound 

 Molecule. 



In a crystal containing a large number of atoms it has 

 been shown in former papers that the axes of revolution of 

 the atoms are not parallel to each other, but that they take 

 such positions that the turning moment of the force due to 

 all the other atoms in the crystal upon each and every atom 

 is zero, and in stable equilibrium for small displacements. 

 When the number of atoms in the structure is comparatively 

 small, however, as is the case with single molecules of chemical 

 compounds, it may be shown that there is no position of the 

 axes that can satisfy this required condition for the equilibrium 

 of the turning moments except when the axes are all parallel 

 to each other. On this account I have come to the con- 

 clusion that the chemical molecules in distinction from a 

 crystal are formed of atoms whose axes of revolution are all 

 parallel to each other, and the obtaining of the different 



* Communicated by the Author. 

 t Phil. Mag., June*1915, p. 750. 



