EXTENDED TO DENSE BODIES. 



583 



mass or medium, both of them either adjusted to each other binarily and most 

 stably as X.,oXj2, or inscribing and circumscribing each other as X32. For the 

 same reason, X^2 ^^ -^20' when they are forbidden to differentiate each other, 

 may both of them be differentiated by the addition of some dissimilar unit or units 

 on two opposite points of their forms to develope poles, and thus to impart unity 

 of direction in the functioning of the molecules ; for both the dodecahedron and 

 the icosahedron of geometry are in themselves isometrical. We thus obtain a 

 series of molecules of which we may tabulate the leading members (for the 

 sake of subsequent reference) as follows, adding the corresponding numbers 

 in the authorised chemistry, which always draws, and often quarters molecules, 

 as our forefathers did traitors, till one of the molecular constituents is reduced to 

 a single element. 











Authorised Numbers. 



Examples. 



Type («.) 



. . . X,2 • • 



. 12X 



. 



.X 



. . CI 



', 0-) 



• ■ ^20 • • 



. 20X 



. 



.X 



. . s 



„ (7-) 



. X Xj^X . 



. 14X 



• • 



. X 



. . K 



» (3) 



• • ^ ^20-^ 



. 22X 



• 



.X 



. • Hg 



„ (O . 



• Y Xj„Y . 



. 10X + 2Y 



. 5X + Y . 



• CIO, 



» iV 



. XYX^gYX . 



. 14X + 



2Y 



. 7X + Y . 



. CIO, 



„ in) . 



YXY XjqYXY 



12X + 



4Y . 



. 3X + Y . . 



. C103 



» (0-) 



. YXZ X^oZXY 



. 12X + 



2Y + 2Z 



. 3XY + 3XZ 



. KSP + AISP. 



These are the principal members of the first or lowest series of molecules. 

 But of these, others are composed according to the same laws. Thus we have 



(^12)12' *^c. 



Such views will not be thought altogether strange with regard to organic 



molecules, the established formulae of many of which already give as many, nay 



very many, more atoms as their constituents. But they will be thought very 



strange in reference to merely chemical, metallic, and mineral bodies. I know 



of no reason, however, to call for a break in the economy of nature in this respect 



between one class of molecules and another, or to explain such a break, if it 



really existed. And as the view here advanced is in favour of the unity of nature 



and the simplicity of science, it can have nothing against it, except its novelty or 



its inadequacy to explain phenomena, 



1 To see how it stands in this respect, therefore, let us give a specimen of specific 



' gravities, deduced a jyrioi^i by its aid, and compare them with the experimental 



results obtained by the balance. And to anticipate the charge of special selection 



of such as alone would serve my purpose, let us take the most familiar and 



notable substances, whether of the laboratory of nature or of the chemist, some 



I undecomposable bodies non-metallic and metallic, some acids, some salts, and 



I some stones. The reader is only requested to bestow his critical eye specially 



i upon those that are abundant in nature in the concrete state, and respecting 



whose specific gravity there is no doubt. 



