324 Mr. Gervaise Le Bas on 



to each atom, and only the central position of stable equilibrium 

 for the electrion in the atom, there could be only one bright 

 line in the spectrum. But in reality, every one of the known 

 monatomic gases, Mercury vapour, Argon, Helium, Neon, 

 Krypton, Xenon, gives a highly complicated spectrum with a 

 large number of bright lines. We infer ; that, if there is just 

 one electrion to each atom, it has many positions of stable 

 equilibrium ; or that there are many electrions, with only the 

 central position of equilibrium for one of them alone ; or that 

 there are several electrions, and several . stable positions for 

 one of them alone in the atom. 



§ 25. It seems as if only on the third supposition — several 

 electrions and several positions of stable equilibrium — we 

 can imagine the great number of bright lines, and the great 

 complexity of their arrangement in the spectrums of the 

 monatomic gases. 



§ 26. But we can feel little satisfaction in this, or any 

 other, attempt to discover details of dynamical theory, unless 

 it gives some reasonably acceptable explanation of the laws 

 of arrangement of trains of bright lines in the spectrums of 

 different chemical elements, which have been experimentally 

 discovered by Runge, Kayser, Bydberg, Schuster, and others. 



XXIX. The Unit-Stere Theory : The Demonstration of a 

 Natural Relation between the Volumes of the Atoms in 

 Compounds under Corresponding Conditions and that of 

 Combined Hydrogen. By Gervaise Le Bas, B.Sc* 



I. 



The Relative Volumes oe Carbon and Hydrogen in 

 the Liquid Normal ] 

 sponding Conditions 



the Liquid Normal Paraffins C tt H 2?l+2 under Corre- 



THE author has shown (Trans. Chem. Soc. 1907, xci. 

 p. 112) that, in the liquid normal hydrocarbons from 

 undecane C n H 2 ^ to pentatriacontane C 35 H 72 at the melting- 

 point, carbon has a volume almost exactly four times that of 

 combined hydrogen. This ratio is similar to the one existing 

 between the fundamental valency numbers of the above atoms. 

 It thus follows that the molecular volumes of the paraffins in 

 question are, at the melting-point, proportional to their 

 respective valency numbers. These facts are regarded as 

 evidence in favour of the view that valency is a volume 

 property. 



* Communicated by Prof. W. J. Pope, F.R.S. 



