173 
Now, since all philosophers recognise the presence every- 
where of the three elements of light, electricity, and mag- 
netism, as also the fact of their reciprocal interchanges of 
form, as exhibited in phenomena ; and as we find, also, the 
general admission of “ an elastic ether” in space, it would 
seem far more in harmony with “the simplicity of nature’s 
laws” to ascribe those known forms of “the imponderable 
elements” to the mutations of one than to the existence, in 
space, of four distinct elements. I have accordingly aimed 
to show that each of the known conditions of imponderable 
matter are traceable to the mutations of the one pervading 
element, and, for the reasons before stated, I call this ele- 
mental or neutral heat. 
“Researches on Di-Methyl,” by Wm. H. Dakling, Dalton 
Scholar in the Laboratory of Owens College. Communicated 
by Professor H. E. Roscoe, Ph.D., F.R.S, 
The synthesis of carbon compounds forms perhaps the 
most important and interesting branch of modern chemical 
enquiry. The most recent developments of these syntheti- 
cal processes are the now well ascertained facts of the de- 
pendence of the chemical properties of the molecule, upon 
the position of the individual atoms of which that molecule 
is built up. 
Any isomeric modifications of the saturated monovalent 
compounds containing one or two atoms of carbon can only 
be explained by the existence of a difference between the 
four combining powers of each carbon atom, whilst in the 
tri-carbon and higher series isomerism indicates the differ- 
ence in the power of combination existing between the end 
and the middle carbon atoms of the chain. 
From Frankland’s original observations concerning the 
difference between the action of chlorine on the so-called 
CH ) 
di-methyl qjjM obtained by the electrolysis of an alkaline 
