288 
MAJOR A. E. OXLEY ON THE INFLUENCE OF MOLECULAR 
indication as to the outer regions of the atom which determine the valency forcives. 
Hence, in spite of the disclosure of the X-raj" methods, it is maintained that withm a 
crystalline medium the molecules, tliough distorted, are still essentially integral units 
and that it is possible to imagine a surface enclosing each (pp. 27U-277). 
(VIII.) The smallness of the nucleus disclosed by recent work on radio-activity 
suggests that in addition to the part played by the magnetic forces in crystallization, 
these forces, are in part responsible for chemical combination (footnote, p. 274). 
The theory of chemical combination developed by Sir J. J. Thomson implies the 
transference of electrons from one atom to another whereby the atoms become 
oppositely charged. Such a transference of the valency electrons implies a com¬ 
plete readjustment of the magnetic property and therefore this property could not 
be of an additive nature. This is borne out by a large amount of experimental 
evidence. 
If the chemical combination takes place without a transference of the valency 
electrons from one atom to another, which probably happens in many organic 
compounds in which electrolytic dissociation does not take place, we might expect the 
magnetic properties to be more or less of an additive nature. Pascal’s work confirms 
this view (pp. 277-281). 
(IX.) The author has previously shown that the magneton may be a constituent of 
the diamagnetic hydrogen molecule. It appears that this idea may be extended to 
carbon and the hydrocarbons in general, where the molecular susceptibility can be 
directly calculated from the atomic susceptibilities of the component atoms. The 
results, however, are not so convincing when extended to other elements, but the fact 
that departures from the additive law occur in such cases leads us to suppose that 
some disturbing influence has been neglected. AVeiss’s work on salts of the ferro- 
magnetic elements, taken in conjunction with our present conception of diamagnetism, 
suggests that diamagnetic substances contain magnetons, compensated so as to 
produce a diamagnetic efiect of the medium in bulk. The forces of chemical 
combination may, however, perturb this state, and by rearranging the magnetic elements 
give rise to a compound possessing more magnetons than are contained in an unbalanced 
state in a ferro-magnetic element. Examples of this are given and also of the reverse 
efiect which may equall}^ well arise (pp. 281-282). 
(X.) The principle of the continuity of magnetic induction, as applied to the local 
molecular forcive, suggests a possil^le interpretation of known anomalies of the 
magnetic rotational effect. In paramagnetic solutions, the dextro-g 5 udc or leevo-gyric 
property is attributed to a differential effect of the reversed local field and the applied 
field over rotationally active electrons, the sign of the efiect depending on the 
direction of the resultant field acting over these electrons. 
The very powerful rotational effect of; thin films of iron, nickel and cobalt, in 
comparison with that shown by carbon bisulphide, has also received an interpretation 
in terms of the local molecular forcive (pp. 282-286). 
