154 Dr. E. J. Mills on the 



Genesis of the Elements. 



The equations in Part I. were obtained empirically by trial 

 amongst the numerics. The sixteen groups to which they 

 correspond represent the well-known phenomenon of perio- 

 dicity, which probably accompanies all kinds of seriated 

 chemical change. But the nature of the operator x in the 

 expression 



y 



/ n V 



was not at that time discussed. I now propose to interpret 

 the equations, and therefore to account for the genesis of the 

 elements, on simple suppositions derived from the existing 

 phenomena of experimental chemistry. 



All investigators who have discussed the formation of 

 stellar or elementary matter agree that at one time it was in 

 an intensely heated condition ; and that it has arrived at its 

 present state by a process of cooling. The process of cooling 

 may be assumed to have been practically a free process, 

 ( L ) because it could not have been affected by elements not 

 yet existing, and (2) because space may be regarded as in- 

 finite and vacuous as regards nebular matter. 



Chemical substances in the process of cooling naturally 

 acquire an increase of density ; and if the increase of density 

 be measured as a function of time or temperature, we not 

 unfrequently observe that there are critical points, corre- 

 sponding to the formation of new and well-defined substances. 

 Thus, by cooling or loss of heat, common phosphorus becomes 

 red phosphorus, the substance I furnishes I 2 , $ 2 yields S 6 , 

 and N0 2 , N 2 4 ; styrol is transformed into metastyrol, alde- 

 hyde into paraldehyde, cyanates into cyanurates, turpentine 

 into metaterebenthene ; &c, &c. At the critical points heat 

 is evolved in marked abundance, and the bodies then formed 

 are termed " polymers ;" the changes themselves admit, as a 

 rule, of reversal. If it were possible for us to cool down 

 chemical substances through a vast range of temperature, 

 there would, doubtless, be a much greater number of critical 

 points, or points of multiple proportion, discovered than are 

 at present experimentally known to us. 



The process, then, of cooling the primitive matter may be 

 regarded, from a chemical point of view, as resulting in the 

 formation of a succession of polymers (1, 2, 3, . . ,)n, 

 n being the primitive density. But on account of the 

 evolution of heat when a polymer is formed, there will ensue, 



