358 CHEMISTRY: W. A. NOYES 
Falk and Nelson,!^ Fry/^ L. W. Jones/^ Stieglitz^o Bray and Branch,^! 
G. N. Lewis, 22 and others have discussed the phenomena connected 
with the transfer of valence electrons from one atom to another but, 
with the exception of the magneton theories referred to above, no one, 
so far as I can discover, has suggested a possible connection between 
the motion of the valence electrons and chemical combination between 
atoms. 
In the h3^otheses here proposed the following assumptions, now 
more or less current among physicists and chemists, are made: 
1. The atoms are of a complex structure made up of positive nuclei 
and electrons, of which the latter, at least, are in very rapid motion. 
If we assume that the electrons are 1/1800 the mass of hydrogen atoms 
and that they obey the same laws of motion as other atoms, their aver- 
age velocity would be about sixty times the velocity of molecules of 
hydrogen (H2). I will not attempt to discuss here the question whether 
the law of equipartition of energy actually holds for electrons. 
2. That the electrons are of two kinds in their relation to the struc- 
ture of the atom. Some of them are so involved in their orbits or mo- 
tions among the positive nuclei that they can never escape from the 
atom. Others, called valence electrons, may be transferred to other 
atoms. 
Let us suppose that two atoms, which have an affinity for each other 
are brought close together. A valence electron which is rotating around 
a positive nucleus in the first atom may find a positive nucleus in the 
second atom sufficiently close so that it will include the latter in its 
orbit and it may then continue to describe an orbit about the positive 
nuclei of the two atoms. During that portion of the orbit within the 
second atom that atom would become, on the whole, negative while 
the first atom would be positive. During the other part of the orbit 
each atom would be electrically neutral, and the atoms might fall apart. 
When we remember, however, the tremendous velocity of the elec- 
trons and the relatively sluggish motion^ of the atoms it seems evident 
that the motion of an electron in such an orbit might hold two atoms 
together. In ionization the electron would, of course, revolve about 
the nucleus of the negative atom leaving the other atom positive. It 
seems impossible to explain ionization otherwise than on the supposition 
of the complete transfer of the electron. This complete transfer in 
ionization is one of the strongest arguments against the magneton 
theory as the only explanation of chemical combination. 
An interesting feature of the hypothesis proposed is that it may be 
used to account for that localization of the affinities in particular parts 
