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Title: Occult Chemistry
Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements
Author: Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater
Editor: A. P. Sinnett
Release Date: June 14, 2005 [eBook #16058]
Language: English
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OCCULT CHEMISTRY
Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements
by
ANNIE BESANT, P.T.S.
and
CHARLES W. LEADBEATER
Revised Edition edited by A. P. SINNETT
LONDON
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE
1, UPPER WOBURN PLACE, W.C. 1.
1919
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
When undertaking to prepare a new edition of this book I received
permission from the authors to "throw it into the form in which you think
it would be most useful at the present time." It was left to my discretion,
"What to use and what to omit." I have not found it necessary to avail
myself to any considerable extent of this latter permission. But as the
contents of the book were originally arranged the reader was ill-prepared
to appreciate the importance of the later research for want of introductory
matter explaining how it began, and how the early research led up to the
later investigation. I have therefore contributed an entirely new
preliminary chapter which will, I hope, help the reader to realise the
credibility of the results attained when the molecular forms and
constitution of the numerous bodies examined were definitely observed. I
have not attempted to revise the records of the later research in which I
had no personal share, so from the beginning of Chapter III to the end the
book in its present form is simply a reprint of the original edition except
for the correction of a few trifling misprints.
I have thus endeavoured to bring into clear prominence at the outset the
scientific value of the light the book sheds on the constitution of matter.
The world owes a debt to scientific men of the ordinary type that cannot be
over-estimated, but though they have hitherto preferred to progress
gradually, from point to point, disliking leaps in the dark, the leap now
made is only in the dark for those who will not realise that the progress
to be accomplished by means of instrumental research must sooner or later
be supplemented by subtler methods. Physical science has reached the
conception that the atoms of the bodies hitherto called the chemical
elements are each composed of minor atoms. Instrumental research cannot
determine by how many, in each case. Occult research ascertained the actual
number in some cases by direct observation and then discovered the law
governing the numbers in all cases, and the relation of these numbers to
atomic weights. The law thus unveiled is a demonstration of the accuracy of
the first direct observations, and this principle once established the
credibility of accounts now given as to the arrangement of minor atoms in
the molecules of the numerous elements examined, seems to me advanced to a
degree approximating to proof.
It remains to be seen--not how far, but rather how soon the scientific
world at large will accept the conclusions of this volume as a definite
contribution to science, blending the science of the laboratory with that
variety that has hitherto been called occult.
CONTENTS.
I.--A PRELIMINARY SURVEY
II.--DETAILS OF THE EARLY RESEARCH
THE PLATONIC SOLIDS
III.--THE LATER RESEARCHES
OCCULT CHEMISTRY.
CHAPTER I.
A PRELIMINARY SURVEY.
The deep interest and importance of the research which this book describes
will best be appreciated if introduced by an account of the circumstances
out of which it arose. The first edition, consisting mainly of articles
reprinted from the _Theosophist_, dealt at once with the later phases of
the research in a way which, though intelligible to the occult student,
must have been rather bewildering to the ordinary reader. These later
phases, however, endow the earlier results with a significance that in the
beginning could only be vaguely conjectured. I am the better entitled to
perform the task that has been assigned to me--that of preparing the
present edition--by reason of the fact that it was in my presence and at my
instigation that the first efforts were made to penetrate the mystery
previously enshrouding the ultimate molecule of matter.
I remember the occasion vividly. Mr. Leadbeater was then staying at my
house, and his clairvoyant faculties were frequently exercised for the
benefit of myself, my wife and the theosophical friends around us. I had
discovered that these faculties, exercised in the appropriate direction,
were ultra-microscopic in their power. It occurred to me once to ask Mr.
Leadbeater if he thought he could actually _see_ a molecule of physical
matter. He was quite willing to try, and I suggested a molecule of gold as
one which he might try to observe. He made the appropriate effort, and
emerged from it saying the molecule in question was far too elaborate a
structure to be described. It evidently consisted of an enormous number of
some smaller atoms, quite too many to count; quite too complicated in their
arrangement to be comprehended. It struck me at once that this might be due
to the fact that gold was a heavy metal of high atomic weight, and that
observation might be more successful if directed to a body of low atomic
weight, so I suggested an atom of hydrogen as possibly more manageable. Mr.
Leadbeater accepted the suggestion and tried again. This time he found the
atom of hydrogen to be far simpler than the other, so that the minor atoms
constituting the hydrogen atom were countable. They were arranged on a
definite plan, which will be rendered intelligible by diagrams later on,
and were eighteen in number.
We little realized at the moment the enormous significance of this
discovery, made in the year 1895, long before the discovery of radium
enabled physicists of the ordinary type to improve their acquaintance with
the "electron." Whatever name is given to that minute body it is recognised
now by ordinary science as well as by occult observation, as the
fundamental unit of physical matter. To that extent ordinary science has
overtaken the occult research I am dealing with, but that research rapidly
carried the occult student into regions of knowledge whither, it is
perfectly certain, the ordinary physicist must follow him at no distant
date.
The research once started in the way I have described was seen to be
intensely interesting. Mrs. Besant almost immediately co-operated with Mr.
Leadbeater in its further progress. Encouraged by the success with
hydrogen, the two important gases, oxygen and nitrogen, were examined. They
proved to be rather more difficult to deal with than hydrogen but were
manageable. Oxygen was found to consist of 290 minor atoms and nitrogen of
261. Their grouping will be described later on. The interest and importance
of the whole subject will best be appreciated by a rough indication of the
results first attained. The reader will then have more patience in
following the intricacies of the later discoveries.
The figures just quoted were soon perceived to have a possible
significance. The atomic weight of oxygen is commonly taken as 16. That is
to say, an atom of oxygen is sixteen times heavier than an atom of
hydrogen. In this way, all through the table of atomic weights, hydrogen is
taken as unity, without any attempt being made to estimate its absolute
weight. But now with the atom of hydrogen dissected, so to speak, and found
to consist of 18 somethings, while the atom of oxygen consisted of 290 of
the same things, the sixteen to one relationship reappears: 290 divided by
18 gives us 16 and a minute decimal fraction. Again the nitrogen number
divided by 18 gives us 14 and a minute fraction as the result, and that is
the accepted atomic weight of nitrogen. This gave us a glimpse of a
principle that might run all through the table of atomic weights. For
reasons having to do with other work, it was impossible for the authors of
this book to carry on the research further at the time it was begun. The
results already sketched were published as an article in the magazine then
called _Lucifer_, in November, 1895, and reprinted as a separate pamphlet
bearing the title "Occult Chemistry," a pamphlet the surviving copies of
which will one day be a recognised vindication of the method that will at
some time in the future be generally applied to the investigation of
Nature's mysteries. For the later research which this volume deals with
does establish the principle with a force that can hardly be resisted by
any fair-minded reader. With patience and industry--the authors being
assisted in the counting in a way that will be described (and the method
adopted involved a check upon the accuracy of the counting)--the minor
atoms of almost all the known chemical elements, as they are commonly
called, were counted and found to bear the same relation to their atomic
weights as had been suggested by the cases of oxygen and nitrogen. This
result throws back complete proof on the original estimate of the number of
minor atoms in hydrogen, a figure which ordinary research has so far
entirely failed to determine. The guesses have been widely various, from
unity to many hundreds, but, unacquainted with the clairvoyant method, the
ordinary physicist has no means of reaching the actual state of the facts.
Before going on with the details of the later research some very important
discoveries arising from the early work must first be explained. As I have
already said clairvoyant faculty of the appropriate order directed to the
minute phenomena of Nature is practically infinite in its range. Not
content with estimating the number of minor atoms in physical molecules,
the authors proceeded to examine the minor atoms individually. They were
found to be themselves elaborately complicated structures which, in this
preliminary survey of the whole subject, I will not stop to explain (full
explanation will be found later on) and they are composed of atoms
belonging to an ultra-physical realm of Nature with which the occultist has
long been familiar and describes as "the Astral Plane." Some rather
pedantic critics have found fault with the term, as the "plane" in question
is of course really a sphere entirely surrounding the physical globe, but
as all occultists understand the word, "plane" simply signifies a condition
of nature. Each condition, and there are many more than the two under
consideration, blends with its neighbour, _via_ atomic structure. Thus the
atoms of the Astral plane in combination give rise to the finest variety of
physical matter, the ether of space, which is not homogeneous but really
atomic in its character, and the minute atoms of which physical molecules
are composed are atoms of ether, "etheric atoms," as we have now learned to
call them.
Many physicists, though not all, will resent the idea of treating the ether
of space as atomic. But at all events the occultist has the satisfaction of
knowing that the great Russian chemist, Mendeleef, preferred the atomic
theory. In Sir William Tilden's recent book entitled "Chemical Discovery
and Invention in the Twentieth Century," I read that Mendeleef,
"disregarding conventional views," supposed the ether to have a molecular
or atomic structure, and in time all physicists must come to recognise that
the Electron is not, as so many suppose at present, an atom of electricity,
but an atom of ether carrying a definite unit charge of electricity.
Long before the discovery of radium led to the recognition of the electron
as the common constituent of all the bodies previously described as
chemical elements, the minute particles of matter in question had been
identified with the cathode rays observed in Sir William Crookes' vacuum
tubes. When an electric current is passed through a tube from which the air
(or other gas it may contain) has been almost entirely exhausted, a
luminous glow pervades the tube manifestly emanating from the cathode or
negative pole of the circuit. This effect was studied by Sir William
Crookes very profoundly. Among other characteristics it was found that, if
a minute windmill was set up in the tube before it was exhausted, the
cathode ray caused the vanes to revolve, thus suggesting the idea that they
consisted of actual particles driven against the vanes; the ray being thus
evidently something more than a mere luminous effect. Here was a mechanical
energy to be explained, and at the first glance it seemed difficult to
reconcile the facts observed with the idea creeping into favour, that the
particles, already invested with the name "electron," were atoms of
electricity pure and simple. Electricity was found, or certain eminent
physicists thought they had found, that electricity _per se_ had inertia.
So the windmills in the Crookes' vacuum tubes were supposed to be moved by
the impact of electric atoms.
Then in the progress of ordinary research the discovery of radium by Madame
Curie in the year 1902 put an entirely new face upon the subject of
electrons. The beta particles emanating from radium were soon identified
with the electrons of the cathode ray. Then followed the discovery that the
gas helium, previously treated as a separate element, evolved itself as one
consequence of the disintegration of radium. Transmutation, till then
laughed at as a superstition of the alchemist, passed quietly into the
region of accepted natural phenomena, and the chemical elements were seen
to be bodies built up of electrons in varying number and probably in
varying arrangements. So at last ordinary science had reached one important
result of the occult research carried on seven years earlier. It has not
yet reached the finer results of the occult research--the _structure_ of
the hydrogen atom with its eighteen etheric atoms and the way in which the
atomic weights of all elements are explained by the number of etheric atoms
entering into their constitution.
The ether of space, though defying instrumental examination, comes within
scope of the clairvoyant faculty, and profoundly interesting discoveries
were made during what I have called the early research in connexion with
that branch of the inquiry. Etheric atoms combine to form molecules in many
different ways, but combinations involving fewer atoms than the eighteen
which give rise to hydrogen, make no impression on the physical senses nor
on physical instruments of research. They give rise to varieties of
molecular ether, the comprehension of which begins to illuminate realms of
natural mystery as yet entirely untrodden by the ordinary physicist.
Combinations below 18 in number give rise to three varieties of molecular
ether, the functions of which when they come to be more fully studied will
constitute a department of natural knowledge on the threshold of which we
already stand. Some day we may perhaps be presented with a volume on Occult
Physics as important in its way as the present dissertation on Occult
Chemistry.
* * * * *
CHAPTER II.
DETAILS OF THE EARLY RESEARCH.
The article detailing the results of the research carried on in the year
1895 (see the November issue for that year of the magazine then called
_Lucifer_), began with some general remarks about the clairvoyant faculty,
already discussed in the preceding chapter. The original record then goes
on as follows:--
The physical world is regarded as being composed of between sixty and
seventy chemical elements, aggregated into an infinite variety of
combinations. These combinations fall under the three main heads of solids,
liquids and gases, the recognised substates of physical matter, with the
theoretical ether scarcely admitted as material. Ether, to the scientist,
is not a substate or even a state of matter, but is a something apart by
itself. It would not be allowed that gold could be raised to the etheric
condition as it might be to the liquid and gaseous; whereas the occultist
knows that the gaseous is succeeded by the etheric, as the solid is
succeeded by the liquid, and he knows also that the word "ether" covers
four substates as distinct from each other as are the solids, liquids and
gases, and that all chemical elements have their four etheric substates,
the highest being common to all, and consisting of the ultimate physical
atoms to which all elements are finally reducible. The chemical atom is
regarded as the ultimate particle of any element, and is supposed to be
indivisible and unable to exist in a free state. Mr. Crookes' researches
have led the more advanced chemists to regard the atoms as compound, as a
more or less complex aggregation of protyle.
To astral vision ether is a visible thing, and is seen permeating all
substances and encircling every particle. A "solid" body is a body composed
of a vast number of particles suspended in ether, each vibrating backwards
and forwards in a particular field at a high rate of velocity; the
particles are attracted towards each other more strongly than they are
attracted by external influences, and they "cohere," or maintain towards
each other a definite relation in space. Closer examination shows that the
ether is not homogeneous but consists of particles of numerous kinds,
differing in the aggregations of the minute bodies composing them; and a
careful and more detailed method of analysis reveals that it has four
distinct degrees, giving us, with the solid, liquid and gaseous, seven
instead of four substates of matter in the physical world.
These four etheric substates will be best understood if the method be
explained by which they were studied. This method consisted of taking what
is called an atom of gas, and breaking it up time after time, until what
proved to be the ultimate physical atom was reached, the breaking up of
this last resulting in the production of astral, and no longer physical
matter.
[Illustration]
It is, of course, impossible to convey by words the clear conceptions that
are gained by direct vision of the objects of study, and the accompanying
diagram--cleverly drawn from the description given by the investigators--is
offered as a substitute, however poor, for the lacking vision of the
readers. The horizontal lines separate from each other the seven substates
of matter; solid, liquid, gas, ether 4, ether 3, ether 2, ether 1. On the
gas level are represented three chemical atoms, one of hydrogen (H), one of
oxygen (O), one of nitrogen (N). The successive changes undergone by each
chemical atom are shown in the compartments vertically above it, the
left-hand column showing the breaking up of the hydrogen atom, the middle
column that of the oxygen atom, the right-hand column, that of the nitrogen
atom. The ultimate physical atom is marked _a_, and is drawn only once,
although it is the same throughout. The numbers 18, 290 and 261 are the
numbers of the ultimate physical atoms found to exist in a chemical atom.
The dots indicate the lines along which force is observed to be playing,
and the arrowheads show the direction of the force. No attempt has been
made to show this below E 2 except in the case of the hydrogen. The letters
given are intended to help the reader to trace upwards any special body;
thus _d_ in the oxygen chemical atom on the gas level may be found again on
E 4, E 3, and E 2. It must be remembered that the bodies shown
diagrammatically in no way indicate relative size; as a body is raised from
one substate to the one immediately above it, it is enormously magnified
for the purpose of investigation, and the ultimate atom on E 1 is
represented by the dot _a_ on the gaseous level.
The first chemical atom selected for this examination was an atom of
hydrogen (H). On looking carefully at it, it was seen to consist of six
small bodies, contained in an egg-like form. It rotated with great rapidity
on its own axis, vibrating at the same time, and the internal bodies
performed similar gyrations. The whole atom spins and quivers, and has to
be steadied before exact observation is possible. The six little bodies are
arranged in two sets of three, forming two triangles that are not
interchangeable, but are related to each other as object and image. (The
lines in the diagram of it on the gaseous sub-plane are not lines of force,
but show the two triangles; on a plane surface the interpenetration of the
triangles cannot be clearly indicated.) Further, the six bodies are not all
alike; they each contain three smaller bodies--each of these being an
ultimate physical atom--but in two of them the three atoms are arranged in
a line, while in the remaining four they are arranged in a triangle.
The wall of the limiting spheroid in which the bodies are enclosed being
composed of the matter of the third, or gaseous, kind, drops away when the
gaseous atom is raised to the next level, and the six bodies are set free.
They at once re-arrange themselves in two triangles, each enclosed by a
limiting sphere; the two marked _b_ in the diagram unite with one of those
marked _b'_ to form a body which shows a positive character, the remaining
three forming a second body negative in type. These form the hydrogen
particles of the lowest plane of ether, marked E 4--ether 4--on the
diagram. On raising these further, they undergo another disintegration,
losing their limiting walls; the positive body of E 4, on losing its wall,
becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two particles, marked _b_,
distinguishable by the linear arrangement of the contained ultimate atoms,
enclosed in a wall, and the other being the third body enclosed in E 4 and
now set free. The negative body of E 4 similarly, on losing its wall,
becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two particles marked _b'_, and
the second the remaining body, being set free. These free bodies do not
remain on E 3 but pass immediately to E 2, leaving the positive and
negative bodies, each containing two particles, as the representatives of
hydrogen on E 3. On taking these bodies a step higher their wall
disappears, and the internal bodies are set free, those containing the
atoms arranged lineally being positive, and those with the triangular
arrangement being negative. These two forms represent hydrogen on E 2, but
similar bodies of this state of matter are found entering into other
combinations, as may be seen by referring to _f_ on E 2 of nitrogen (N). On
raising these bodies yet one step further, the falling away of the walls
sets the contained atoms free, and we reach the ultimate physical atom, the
matter of E 1. The disintegration of this sets free particles of astral
matter, so that we have reached in this the limit of physical matter. The
Theosophical reader will notice with interest that we can thus observe
seven distinct substates of physical matter, and no more.
The ultimate atom, which is the same in all the observed cases, is an
exceedingly complex body, and only its main characteristics are given in
the diagram. It is composed entirely of spirals, the spiral being in its
turn composed of spirillæ, and these again of minuter spirillæ. A fairly
accurate drawing is given in Babbitt's "Principles of Light and Colour," p.
102. The illustrations there given of atomic combinations are entirely
wrong and misleading, but if the stove-pipe run through the centre of the
single atom be removed, the picture may be taken as correct, and will give
some idea of the complexity of this fundamental unit of the physical
universe.
Turning to the force side of the atom and its combinations, we observe that
force pours in the heart-shaped depression at the top of the atom, and
issues from the point, and is changed in character by its passage; further,
force rushes through every spiral and every spirilla, and the changing
shades of colour that flash out from the rapidly revolving and vibrating
atom depend on the several activities of the spirals; sometimes one,
sometimes another, is thrown into more energetic action, and with the
change of activity from one spiral to another the colour changes.
The building of a gaseous atom of hydrogen may be traced downward from E 1,
and, as stated above, the lines given in the diagram are intended to
indicate the play of the forces which bring about the several combinations.
Speaking generally, positive bodies are marked by their contained atoms
setting their points towards each other and the centre of their
combination, and repelling each other outwards; negative bodies are marked
by the heart-shaped depressions being turned inwards, and by a tendency to
move towards each other instead of away. Every combination begins by a
welling up of force at a centre, which is to form the centre of the
combination; in the first positive hydrogen combination, E 2, an atom
revolving at right angles to the plane of the paper and also revolving on
its own axis, forms the centre, and force, rushing out at its lower point,
rushes in at the depressions of two other atoms, which then set themselves
with their points to the centre; the lines are shown in +b, right-hand
figure. (The left-hand figure indicates the revolution of the atoms each by
itself.) As this atomic triad whirls round, it clears itself a space,
pressing back the undifferentiated matter of the plane, and making to
itself a whirling wall of this matter, thus taking the first step towards
building up the chemical hydrogen atom. A negative atomic triad is
similarly formed, the three atoms being symmetrically arranged round the
centre of out-welling force. These atomic triads then combine, two of the
linear arrangement being attracted to each other, and two of the
triangular, force again welling up and forming a centre and acting on the
triads as on a single atom, and a limiting wall being again formed as the
combination revolves round its centre. The next stage is produced by each
of these combinations on E 3 attracting to itself a third atomic triad of
the triangular type from E 2, by the setting up of a new centre of
up-welling force, following the lines traced in the combinations of E 4.
Two of these uniting, and their triangles interpenetrating, the chemical
atom is formed, and we find it to contain in all eighteen ultimate physical
atoms.
The next substance investigated was oxygen, a far more complicated and
puzzling body; the difficulties of observation were very much increased by
the extraordinary activity shown by this element and the dazzling
brilliancy of some of its constituents. The gaseous atom is an ovoid body,
within which a spirally-coiled snake-like body revolves at a high velocity,
five brilliant points of light shining on the coils. The snake appears to
be a solid rounded body, but on raising the atom to E 4 the snake splits
lengthwise into two waved bodies, and it is seen that the appearance of
solidity is due to the fact that these spin round a common axis in opposite
directions, and so present a continuous surface, as a ring of fire can be
made by whirling a lighted stick. The brilliant bodies seen in the atom are
on the crests of the waves in the positive snake, and in the hollows in the
negative one; the snake itself consists of small bead-like bodies, eleven
of which interpose between the larger brilliant spots. On raising these
bodies to E 3 the snakes break up, each bright spot carrying with it six
beads on one side and five on the other; these twist and writhe about still
with the same extraordinary activity, reminding one of fire-flies
stimulated to wild gyrations. It can been seen that the larger brilliant
bodies each enclose seven ultimate atoms, while the beads each enclose two.
(Each bright spot with its eleven beads is enclosed in a wall, accidentally
omitted in the diagram.) On the next stage, E 2, the fragments of the
snakes break up into their constituent parts; the positive and negative
bodies, marked _d_ and _d'_, showing a difference of arrangement of the
atoms contained in them. These again finally disintegrate, setting free the
ultimate physical atoms, identical with those obtained from hydrogen. The
number of ultimate atoms contained in the gaseous atom of oxygen is 290,
made up as follows:--
2 in each bead, of which there are 110:
7 in each bright spot, of which there are 10;
2 x 110 + 70 = 290.
When the observers had worked out this, they compared it with the number of
ultimate atoms in hydrogen:--
290 / 18 = 16.11 +
The respective number of ultimate atoms contained in a chemical atom of
these two bodies are thus seen to closely correspond with their accepted
weight-numbers.
It may be said in passing that a chemical atom of ozone appears as an
oblate spheroid, with the contained spiral much compressed and widened in
the centre; the spiral consists of three snakes, one positive and two
negative, formed in a single revolving body. On raising the chemical atom
to the next plane, the snake divides into three, each being enclosed in its
own egg.
The chemical atom of nitrogen was the third selected by the students for
examination, as it seemed comparatively quiet in contrast with the
ever-excited oxygen. It proved, however, to be the most complicated of all
in its internal arrangements, and its quiet was therefore a little
deceptive. Most prominent was the balloon-shaped body in the middle, with
six smaller bodies in two horizontal rows and one large egg-shaped one in
the midst, contained in it. Some chemical atoms were seen in which the
internal arrangement of these contained bodies was changed and the two
horizontal rows became vertical; this change seemed to be connected with a
greater activity of the whole body, but the observations on this head are
too incomplete to be reliable. The balloon-shaped body is positive, and is
apparently drawn downwards towards the negative egg-shaped body below it,
containing seven smaller particles. In addition to these large bodies, four
small ones are seen, two positive and two negative, the positive containing
five and the negative four minuter spots. On raising the gaseous atom to
E 4, the falling away of the wall sets free the six contained bodies, and
both the balloon and the egg round themselves, apparently with the removal
of their propinquity, as though they had exercised over each other some
attractive influence. The smaller bodies within the egg--marked _q_ on
E 4--are not on one plane, and those within _n_ and _o_ form respectively
square-based and triangular-based pyramids. On raising all these bodies to
E 3 we find the walls fall away as usual, and the contents of each "cell"
are set free: _p_ of E 4 contains six small bodies marked _k_, and these
are shown in _k_ of E 3, as containing each seven little bodies--marked
_e_--each of which has within it two ultimate atoms; the long form of _p_
E 4--marked _l_--appears as the long form _l_ on E 3, and this has three
pairs of smaller bodies within it, _f'_, _g_ and _h_, containing
respectively three, four and six ultimate atoms; _q_ of E 4, with its seven
contained particles, _m_, has three particles _m_ on E 3, each showing
three ultimate atoms within them; _e_ from _n_ of E 4 becomes _i_ of E 3,
with contained bodies, _e_, showing two ultimate atoms in each; while _e'_
from _o_ of E 4 becomes _j_ of E 3, each having three smaller bodies within
it, _e'_, with two ultimate atoms in each. On E 2, the arrangement of these
ultimate atoms is shown, and the pairs, _f'_, _g_ and _h_ are seen with the
lines of force indicated; the triads in _f_--from _m_ of E 3--are similarly
shown, and the duads in _e_ and _e'_--from _i_ and _j_ of E 3--are given in
the same way. When all these bodies are raised to E 1, the ultimate
physical atoms are set free, identical, of course, with that previously
described. Reckoning up the number of ultimate physical atoms in a chemical
atom of nitrogen we find they amount to 261, thus divided:--
62 + bodies with 2 ultimate atoms, 62 x 2 = 124
24 - " " 2 " " 24 x 2 = 48
21 - " " 3 " " 21 x 3 = 63
2 + " " 3 " " 2 x 3 = 6
2 + " " 4 " " 2 x 4 = 8
2 + " " 4 " " 2 x 6 = 12
----
261
This again approaches closely the weight-number assigned to nitrogen:--
261 / 18 =14.44 +
This is interesting as checking the observations, for weight-numbers are
arrived at in so very different a fashion, and especially in the case of
nitrogen the approximation is noteworthy, from the complexity of the bodies
which yield the number on analysis.
Some other observations were made which went to show that as weight-numbers
increased, there was a corresponding increase in the number of bodies
discerned within the chemical atom; thus, gold showed forty-seven contained
bodies; but these observations need repetition and checking. Investigation
of a molecule of water revealed the presence of twelve bodies from hydrogen
and the characteristic snake of oxygen, the encircling walls of the
chemical atoms being broken away. But here again, further observations are
necessary to substantiate details. The present paper is only offered as a
suggestion of an inviting line of research, promising interesting results
of a scientific character; the observations recorded have been repeated
several times and are not the work of a single investigator, and they are
believed to be correct so far as they go.
THE PLATONIC SOLIDS.
Some of our readers may be glad to have a drawing of the Platonic solids,
since they play so large a part in the building up of elements. The regular
solids are five, and five only; in each:
(1) The lines are equal.
(2) The angles are equal.
(3) The surfaces are equal.
[Illustration]
It will be seen that the tetrahedron is the fundamental form, the
three-sided pyramid on a triangular base, _i.e._, a solid figure formed
from four triangles. Two of these generate the cube and the octahedron;
five of these generate the dodecahedron and the icosahedron.
The rhombic dodecahedron is not regular, for though the lines and surfaces
are equal, the angles are not.
NOTES.
Mr. C. Jinarâjadâsa[1] writes:
The asterisk put before metargon in the list of elements should be omitted,
for metargon had been discovered by Sir William Ramsey and Mr. Travers at
the same time as neon (see _Proceedings of the Royal Society_, vol. lxiii,
p. 411), and therefore before it was observed clairvoyantly. It is not,
however, given in the latest list of elements in the Report of November 13,
1907, of the International Atomic Weights Commission, so it would seem as
though it were not yet fully recognised.
Neon was discovered in 1898 by Ramsey and Travers, and the weight given to
it was 22. This almost corresponds with our weight for meta-neon, 22.33;
the latest weight given to neon is 20, and that corresponds within
one-tenth to our weight, 19.9. From this it would seem that neon was
examined in the later investigations and meta-neon in the earlier.
He says further on a probable _fourth_ Interperiodic Group:
Thinking over the diagrams, it seemed to me likely that a fourth group
exists, coming on the paramagnetic side, directly under iron, cobalt,
nickel, just one complete swing of the pendulum after rhodium, ruthenium,
palladium. This would make four interperiodic groups, and they would come
also _periodically_ in the table too.
I took the diagram for Osmium, and in a bar postulated only three columns
for the first element of the new groups, _i.e._, one column less than in
Osmium. This would make 183 atoms in a bar; the new group then would follow
in a bar, 183, 185, 187. Here I found to my surprise that the third
postulated group would have a remarkable relation to Os, Ir, Pt.
Thus
Os.--245 (in a bar); less 60 = 185
Ir. 247 less 60 = 187
Pt. 249 less 60 = 189
But strange to say _also_
Ruthenium (bar) 132 less 60--72
Rhodium 134 less 60--74
Palladium 136 less 60--76
But 72, 74, 76, are Iron, Cobalt and Nickel.
So there does probably exist a new group with bars (183), 185, 187, 189,
with atomic weights.
X=bar 185; atoms 2590, wt. 143.3
Y= 187, 2618, wt. 145.4
Z= 189, 2646, wt. 147.0.
They come probably among the rare earths. Probably also Neodymium and
Praseodymium are two of them, for their weights are 143.6, 140.5.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III.
THE LATER RESEARCHES.
The first difficulty that faced us was the identification of the forms seen
on focusing the sight on gases.[2] We could only proceed tentatively. Thus,
a very common form in the air had a sort of dumb-bell shape (see Plate I);
we examined this, comparing our rough sketches, and counted its atoms;
these, divided by 18--the number of ultimate atoms in hydrogen--gave us
23.22 as atomic weight, and this offered the presumption that it was
sodium. We then took various substances--common salt, etc.--in which we
knew sodium was present, and found the dumb-bell form in all. In other
cases, we took small fragments of metals, as iron, tin, zinc, silver, gold;
in others, again, pieces of ore, mineral waters, etc., etc., and, for the
rarest substances, Mr. Leadbeater visited a mineralogical museum. In all,
57 chemical elements were examined, out of the 78 recognized by modern
chemistry.
In addition to these, we found 3 chemical waifs: an unrecognized stranger
between hydrogen and helium which we named occultum, for purposes of
reference, and 2 varieties of one element, which we named kalon and
meta-kalon, between xenon and osmium; we also found 4 varieties of 4
recognized elements and prefixed meta to the name of each, and a second
form of platinum, that we named Pt. B. Thus we have tabulated in all 65
chemical elements, or chemical atoms, completing three of Sir William
Crookes' lemniscates, sufficient for some amount of generalization.
[Illustration: PLATE I. SODIUM.]
In counting the number of ultimate atoms in a chemical elemental atom, we
did not count them throughout, one by one; when, for instance, we counted
up the ultimate atoms in sodium, we dictated the number in each convenient
group to Mr. Jinarâjadâsa, and he multiplied out the total, divided by 18,
and announced the result. Thus: sodium (_see_ Plate I) is composed of an
upper part, divisible into a globe and 12 funnels; a lower part, similarly
divided; and a connecting rod. We counted the number in the upper part:
globe--10; the number in two or three of the funnels--each 16; the number
of funnels--12; the same for the lower part; in the connecting rod--14. Mr.
Jinarâjadâsa reckoned: 10 + (16 x 12) = 202; hence: 202 + 202 + 14 = 418:
divided by 18 = 23.22 recurring. By this method we guarded our counting
from any prepossession, as it was impossible for us to know how the various
numbers would result on addition, multiplication and division, and the
exciting moment came when we waited to see if our results endorsed or
approached any accepted weight. In the heavier elements, such as gold, with
3546 atoms, it would have been impossible to count each atom without quite
unnecessary waste of time, when making a preliminary investigation. Later,
it may be worth while to count each division separately, as in some we
noticed that two groups, at first sight alike, differed by 1 or 2 atoms,
and some very slight errors may, in this way, have crept into our
calculations.
In the following table is a list of the chemical elements examined; the
first column gives the names, the asterisk affixed to some indicating that
they have not yet been discovered by orthodox chemistry. The second column
gives the number of ultimate physical atoms contained in one chemical atom
of the element concerned. The third column gives the weight as compared
with hydrogen, taken as 18, and this is obtained by dividing the calculated
number of ultimate atoms by 18. The fourth column gives the recognized
weight-number, mostly according to the latest list of atomic weights, the
"International List" of 1905, given in Erdmann's "Lehrbuch der
Unorganischen Chemie." These weights differ from those hitherto accepted,
and are generally lighter than those given in earlier text-books. It is
interesting to note that our counting endorses the earlier numbers, for the
most part, and we must wait to see if later observations will endorse the
last results of orthodox chemistry, or confirm ours.
--------------------------------------------
Hydrogen | 18 | 1 | 1
*Occultum | 54 | 3 | --
Helium | 72 | 4 | 3.94
Lithium | 127 | 7.06 | 6.98
Baryllium | 164 | 9.11 | 9.01
Boron | 200 | 11.11 | 10.86
Carbon | 216 | 12 | 11.91
Nitrogen | 261 | 14.50 | 14.01
Oxygen | 290 | 16.11 | 15.879
Fluorine | 340 | 18.88 | 18.90
Neon | 360 | 20 | 19.9
*Meta-Neon | 402 | 22.33 | --
Sodium | 418 | 23.22 | 22.88
Magnesium | 432 | 24 | 24.18
Aluminium | 486 | 27 | 26.91
Silicon | 520 | 28.88 | 28.18
Phosphorus | 558 | 31 | 30.77
Sulphur | 576 | 32 | 31.82
Chlorine | 639 | 35.50 | 35.473
Potassium | 701 | 38.944 | 38.85
Argon | 714 | 39.66 | 39.60
Calcium | 720 | 40 | 39.74
*Metargon | 756 | 42 | --
Scandium | 792 | 44 | 43.78
Titanium | 864 | 48 | 47.74
Vanadium | 918 | 51 | 50.84
Chromium | 936 | 52 | 51.74
Manganese | 992 | 55.11 | 54.57
Iron | 1008 | 56 | 55.47
Cobalt | 1036 | 57.55 | 57.7
Nickel | 1064 | 59.ll | 58.30
Copper | 1139 | 63.277 | 63.12
Zinc | 1170 | 65 | 64.91
Gallium | 1260 | 70 | 69.50
Germanium | 1300 | 72.22 | 71.93
Arsenic | 1350 | 75 | 74.45
Selenium | 1422 | 79 | 78.58
Bromine | 1439 | 79.944 | 79.953
Krypton | 1464 | 81.33 | 81.20
*Meta-Krypton | 1506 | 83.66 | --
Rubidium | 1530 | 85 | 84.85
Strontium | 1568 | 87.11 | 86.95
Yttrium | 1606 | 89.22 | 88.34
Zirconium | 1624 | 90.22 | 89.85
Niobium | 1719 | 95.50 | 93.25
Molybdenum | 1746 | 97 | 95.26
Ruthenium | 1848 | 102.66 | 100.91
Rhodium | 1876 | 104.22 | 102.23
Palladium | 1904 | 105.77 | 105.74
Silver | 1945 | 108.055 | 107.93
Cadmium | 2016 | 112 | 111.60
Indium | 2052 | 114 | 114.05
Tin | 2124 | 118 | 118.10
Antimony | 2169 | 120.50 | 119.34
Tellurium | 2223 | 123.50 | 126.64
Iodine | 2287 | 127.055 | 126.01
Xenon | 2298 | 127.66 | 127.10
*Meta-Xenon | 2340 | 130 | --
*Kalon | 3054 | 169.66 | --
*Meta-Kalon | 3096 | 172 | --
Osmium | 3430 | 190.55 | 189.55
Iridium | 3458 | 192.11 | 191.56
Platinum A | 3486 | 193.66 | 193.34
*Platinum B | 3514 | 195.22 | --
Gold | 3546 | 197 | 195.74
--------------------------------------------
[Illustration: PLATE II. MALE (left) and FEMALE (right).]
As the words "ultimate physical atom" must frequently occur, it is
necessary to state what we mean by the phrase. Any gaseous chemical atom
may be dissociated into less complicated bodies; these, again, into still
less complicated; these, again, into yet still less complicated. These will
be dealt with presently. After the third dissociation but one more is
possible; the fourth dissociation gives the ultimate physical atom.[3] This
may vanish from the physical plane, but it can undergo no further
dissociation on it. In this ultimate state of physical matter two types of
atoms have been observed; they are alike in everything save the direction
of their whorls and of the force which pours through them. In the one case
force pours in from the "outside," from fourth-dimensional space,[4] and
passing through the atom, pours into the physical world. In the second, it
pours in from the physical world, and out through the atom into the
"outside" again,[4] _i.e._, vanishes from the physical world. The one is
like a spring, from which water bubbles out; the other is like a hole, into
which water disappears. We call the atoms from which force comes out
_positive_ or _male_; those through which it disappears, _negative_ or
_female_. All atoms, so far as observed, are of one or other of these two
forms. (Plate II.)
It will be seen that the atom is a sphere, slightly flattened, and there is
a depression at the point where the force flows in, causing a heart-like
form. Each atom is surrounded by a field, formed of the atoms of the four
higher planes, which surround and interpenetrate it.
The atom can scarcely be said to be a "thing," though it is the material
out of which all things physical are composed. It is formed by the flow of
the life-force[5] and vanishes with its ebb. When this force arises in
"space"[6]--the apparent void which must be filled with substance of some
kind, of inconceivable tenuity--atoms appear; if this be artificially
stopped for a single atom, the atom disappears; there is nothing left.
Presumably, were that flow checked but for an instant, the whole physical
world would vanish, as a cloud melts away in the empyrean. It is only the
persistence of that flow[7] which maintains the physical basis of the
universe.[8]
In order to examine the construction of the atom, a space is artificially
made[9]; then, if an opening be made in the wall thus constructed, the
surrounding force flows in, and three whorls immediately appear,
surrounding the "hole" with their triple spiral of two and a half coils,
and returning to their origin by a spiral within the atom; these are at
once followed by seven finer whorls, which following the spiral of the
first three on the outer surface, and returning to their origin by a spiral
within that, flowing in the opposite direction--form a caduceus with the
first three. Each of the three coarser whorls, flattened out, makes a
closed circle; each of the seven finer ones, similarly flattened out, makes
a closed circle. The forces which flow in them, again, come from "outside,"
from a fourth-dimensional space.[10] Each of the finer whorls is formed of
seven yet finer ones, set successively at right angles to each other, each
finer than its predecessor; these we call spirillæ.[11]
It will be understood from the foregoing, that the atom cannot be said to
have a wall of its own, unless these whorls of force can be so designated;
its "wall" is the pressed back "space." As said in 1895, of the chemical
atom, the force "clears itself a space, pressing back the undifferentiated
matter of the plane, and making to itself a whirling wall of this matter."
The wall belongs to space, not to the atom.
In the three whorls flow currents of different electricities; the seven
vibrate in response to etheric waves of all kinds--to sound, light, heat,
etc.; they show the seven colours of the spectrum; give out the seven
sounds of the natural scale; respond in a variety of ways to physical
vibration--flashing, singing, pulsing bodies, they move incessantly,
inconceivably beautiful and brilliant.[12]
The atom has--as observed so far--three proper motions, _i.e._, motions of
its own, independent of any imposed upon it from outside. It turns
incessantly upon its own axis, spinning like a top; it describes a small
circle with its axis, as though the axis of the spinning top moved in a
small circle; it has a regular pulsation, a contraction and expansion, like
the pulsation of the heart. When a force is brought to bear upon it, it
dances up and down, flings itself wildly from side to side, performs the
most astonishing and rapid gyrations, but the three fundamental motions
incessantly persist. If it be made to vibrate, as a whole, at the rate
which gives any one of the seven colors, the whorl belonging to that color
glows out brilliantly.
[Illustration]
An electric current brought to bear upon the atoms checks their proper
motions, _i.e._, renders them slower; the atoms exposed to it arrange
themselves in parallel lines, and in each line the heart-shaped depression
receives the flow, which passes out through the apex into the depression of
the next, and so on. The atoms always set themselves to the current. The
well-known division of diamagnetic and paramagnetic depends generally on
this fact, or on an analogous action on molecules, as may be seen in the
accompanying diagrams.[13]
Two atoms, positive and negative, brought near to each other, attract each
other, and then commence to revolve round each other, forming a relatively
stable duality; such a molecule is neutral. Combinations of three or more
atoms are positive, negative or neutral, according to the internal
molecular arrangement; the neutral are relatively stable, the positive and
negative are continually in search of their respective opposites, with a
view to establishing a relatively permanent union.
Three states of matter exist between the atomic state and the gaseous--the
state in which the chemical atoms are found, the recognized chemical
elements; for our purposes we may ignore the liquid and solid states. For
the sake of clearness and brevity in description, we have been obliged to
name these states; we call the atomic state of the chemist _elemental_; the
state which results from breaking up chemical elements, _proto-elemental_;
the next higher, _meta-proto-elemental_; the next higher,
_hyper-meta-proto-elemental_; then comes the atomic state. These are
briefly marked as El., Proto., Meta., and Hyper.[14]
The simplest unions of atoms, never, apparently consisting of more than
seven, form the first molecular state of physical matter.
[Illustration: TYPES OF HYPER-META-PROTO-ELEMENTAL MATTER.]
Here are some characteristic combinations of the Hyper state; the atom is
conventional, with the depression emphasised; the lines, always entering at
the depression and coming out at the apex, show the resultants of lines of
force; where no line appears entering the depression, the force wells up
from fourth-dimensional space; where no line appears leaving the apex, the
force disappears into fourth-dimensional space; where the point of entry
and departure is outside the atoms, it is indicated by a dot.[15]
The molecules show all kinds of possible combinations; the combinations
spin, turn head over heels, and gyrate in endless ways. Each aggregation is
surrounded with an apparent cell-wall, the circle or oval, due to the
pressure on the surrounding matter caused by its whirling motion; they
strike on each other[16] and rebound, dart hither and thither, for reasons
we have not distinguished.
[Illustration: TYPES OF META-PROTO-ELEMENTAL MATTER.]
The Meta state, in some of its combinations, appears at first sight to
repeat those of the Hyper state; the only obvious way of distinguishing to
which some of the molecules of less complexity belong is to pull them out
of the "cell-wall"; if they are Hyper molecules they at once fly off as
separate atoms; if they are Meta molecules they break up into two or more
molecules containing a smaller number of atoms. Thus one of the Meta
molecules of iron, containing seven atoms, is identical in appearance with
a Hyper heptad, but the latter dissociates into seven atoms, the former
into two triads and a single atom. Long-continued research into the
detailed play of forces and their results is necessary; we are here only
able to give preliminary facts and details--are opening up the way. The
following may serve as characteristic Meta types:--
These are taken from constituents of the various elements; 1 from Gl; 2 and
3 from Fe; 4 from Bo; 5, 6 and 7 from C; 8 from He; 9 from Fl; 10, 11, 12
from Li; 13 and 14 from Na. Others will be seen in the course of breaking
up the elements.
The Proto state preserves many of the forms in the elements, modified by
release from the pressure to which they are subjected in the chemical atom.
In this state various groups are thus recognizable which are characteristic
of allied metals.
[Illustration: TYPES OF PROTO-ELEMENTAL MATTER.]
These are taken from the products of the first disintegration of the
chemical atom, by forcibly removing it from its hole. The groups fly apart,
assuming a great variety of forms often more or less geometrical; the lines
between the constituents of the groups, where indicated, no longer
represent lines of force, but are intended to represent the impression of
form, _i.e._, of the relative position and motion of the constituents, made
on the mind of the observer. They are elusive, for there are no lines, but
the appearance of lines is caused by the rapid motion of the costituents up
and down, or along them backwards and forwards. The dots represent atoms,
or groups of atoms, within the proto-elements. 1 is found in C; 2 and 3 in
He; 4 in Fl; 5 in Li; 6 in N; 7 in Ru; 8 in Na; 9 and 10 in Co; 11 in Fe;
12 in Se. We shall return to these when analysing the elements, and shall
meet many other proto-elemental groupings.
The first thing which is noticed by the observer, when he turns his
attention to the chemical atoms, is that they show certain definite forms,
and that within these forms, modified in various ways, sub-groupings are
observable which recur in connexion with the same modified form. The main
types are not very numerous, and we found that, when we arranged the atoms
we had observed, according to their external forms, they fell into natural
classes; when these, in turn, were compared with Sir William Crookes'
classification, they proved to be singularly alike. Here is his arrangement
of the elements, as it appeared in the _Proceedings of the Royal Society_,
in a paper read on June 9th, 1898.
[Illustration]
This is to be read, following the lines of the "figures of eight": H, He,
Li, Gl, B, C, N, and so on, each successive element being heavier than the
one preceding it in order. The disks which fall immediately below each
other form a class; thus: H, Cl, Br, I; these resemble each other in
various ways, and, as we shall presently see, the same forms and groupings
re-appear.
Another chart--taken from Erdmann's _Lehrbuch_--arranges the elements on a
curved line, which curiously resembles the curves within the shell of a
nautilus. The radiating lines show the classes, the whole diameter building
up a family; it will be observed that there is an empty radius between
hydrogen and helium, and we have placed occultum there; on the opposite
radius, iron, rubidium and osmium are seen.
[Illustration]
The external forms may be classified as follows; the internal details will
be dealt with later :--
[Illustration: PLATE III.]
1. _The Dumb-bell._--The characteristics of this are a higher and lower
group, each showing 12 projecting funnels, grouped round a central body,
and a connecting rod. It appears in sodium, copper, silver, and gold,[17]
and gold is given (1 on Plate III) as the most extremely modified example
of this form. The 12 almond-like projections, above and below, are
severally contained in shadowy funnels, impossible to reproduce in the
drawing; the central globe contains three globes, and the connecting
portion has swollen out into an egg, with a very complicated central
arrangement. The dumb-bell appears also in chlorine, bromine and iodine,
but there is no trace of it in hydrogen, the head of the group. We have not
met it elsewhere. It may be remarked that, in Sir William Crookes' scheme,
in which they are all classed as monads, these two groups are the nearest
to the neutral line, on the ingoing and outgoing series, and are
respectively positive and negative.
II and IIa. _The Tetrahedron._--The characteristics of this form are four
funnels, containing ovoid bodies, opening on the face of a tetrahedron. The
funnels generally, but not always, radiate from a central globe. We give
beryllium (glucinum) as the simplest example (2 on Plate III), and to this
group belong calcium and strontium. The tetrahedron is the form of chromium
and molybdenum, but not that of the head of their group, oxygen, which is,
like hydrogen, _sui generis_. These two groups are marked in orthodox
chemistry as respectively positive and negative, and are closely allied.
Another pair of groups show the same tetrahedral form: magnesium, zinc and
cadmium, positive; sulphur, selenium and tellurium, negative. Selenium is a
peculiarly beautiful element, with a star floating across the mouth of each
funnel; this star is extremely sensitive to light, and its rays tremble
violently and bend if a beam of light falls on it. All these are dyads.
The tetrahedron is not confined to the external form of the above atoms; it
seems to be one of the favourite forms of nature, and repeatedly appears in
the internal arrangements. There is one tetrahedron within the unknown
element occultum; two appear in helium (3 on Plate III); yttrium has also
two within its cube, as has germanium; five, intersecting, are found in
neon, meta-neon, argon, metargon, krypton, meta-krypton, xenon, meta-xenon,
kalon, meta-kalon, tin, titanium and zirconium. Gold contains no less than
twenty tetrahedra.
III. _The Cube._--The cube appears to be the form of triads. It has six
funnels, containing ovoids, and opening on the faces of the cube. Boron is
chosen as an example (4 on Plate III). Its group members, scandium and
yttrium, have the same form; we have not examined the fourth; the group is
positive. Its negative complement consists of nitrogen, vanadium and
niobium, and we have again to note that nitrogen, like hydrogen and oxygen,
departs from its group type. Two other triad groups, the positive
aluminium, gallium and indium (the fourth unexamined) and the negative
phosphorus, arsenic and antimony (the fourth unexamined), have also six
funnels opening on the faces of a cube.
IV. _The Octahedron._--The simplest example of this is carbon (5 on Plate
III). We have again the funnel with its ovoids, but now there are eight
funnels opening on the eight faces of the octahedron. In titanium (6 on
Plate III) the form is masked by the protruding arms, which give the
appearance of the old Rosicrucian Cross and Rose, but when we look into the
details later, the carbon type comes out clearly. Zirconium is exactly like
titanium in form, but contains a large number of atoms. We did not examine
the remaining two members of this group. The group is tetratomic and
positive. Its negative pendant shows the same form in silicon, germanium
and tin; again, the fourth was unexamined.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.]
V. _The Bars._--These characterise a set of closely allied groups, termed
"inter-periodic." Fourteen bars (or seven crossed) radiate from a centre,
as in iron (1 on Plate IV), and the members of each group--iron, nickel,
cobalt; ruthenium, rhodium, palladium; osmium, iridium, platinum--differ
from each other by the weight of each bar, increasing in orderly
succession; the details will be given later. Manganese is often grouped
with iron, nickel, and cobalt (_see_ Crookes' lemniscates), but its
fourteen protruding bodies repeat the "lithium spike" (proto-element 5) and
are grouped round a central ovoid. This would appear to connect it with
lithium (2 on Plate IV) rather than with fluorine (3 in Plate IV), with
which it is often classed. The "lithium spike" re-appears in potassium and
rubidium. These details, again, will come out more clearly later.
VI. _The Star._--A flat star, with five interpenetrating tetrahedra in the
centre, is the characteristic of neon and its allies (4 on Plate IV)
leaving apart helium, which, as may be seen by referring to 3, Plate IV,
has an entirely different form.
There are thus six clearly defined forms, typical of classes, with
two--lithium and fluorine--of doubtful affinities. It is worthy of notice
that in diatomic elements _four_ funnels open on the faces of tetrahedra;
in triatomic, _six_ funnels on the faces of cubes; in tetratomic, _eight_
funnels on the faces of octahedra.
Thus we have a regular sequence of the platonic solids, and the question
suggests itself, will further evolution develop elements shaped to the
dodecahedron and the icosahedron?
* * * * *
II.
We now pass from the consideration of the outer forms of the chemical
elements to a study of their internal structure, the arrangement within the
element of more or less complicated groups--proto-elements--capable of
separate, independent existence; these, once more, may be dissociated into
yet simpler groups--hyper-meta-proto-elements--equally capable of separate,
independent existence, and resolvable into single ultimate physical atoms,
the irreducible substratum of the physical world (see _Theosophist_, 1908,
pp. 354-356).[18]
We shall have to study the general internal structure, and then the
breaking up of each element, and the admirable diagrams, patiently worked
out by Mr. Jinarâjadâsa, will make the study comparatively easy to carry
on.
The diagrams, of course, can only give a very general idea of the facts
they represent; they give groupings and show relations, but much effort of
the imagination is needed to transform the two-dimensional diagram into the
three-dimensional object. The wise student will try to visualize the figure
from the diagram. Thus the two triangles of hydrogen are not in one plane;
the circles are spheres, and the atoms within them, while preserving to
each other their relative positions, are in swift movement in
three-dimensional space. Where five atoms are seen, as in bromine and
iodine, they are generally arranged with the central atom above the four,
and their motion indicates lines which erect four plane triangles--meeting
at their apices--on a square base, forming a square-based four-sided
pyramid. Each dot represents a single ultimate atom. The enclosing lines
indicate the impression of form made on the observer, and the groupings of
the atoms; the groups will divide along these lines, when the element is
broken up, so that the lines have significance, but they do not exist as
stable walls or enclosing films, but rather mark limits, not lines, of
vibrations. It should be noted that it is not possible to show five of the
prisms in the five intersecting tetrahedra of prisms, and 30 atoms must,
therefore, be added in counting.
The diagrams are not drawn to scale, as such drawing would be impossible;
the dot representing the atom is enormously too large compared with the
enclosures, which are absurdly too small; a scale drawing would mean an
almost invisible dot on a sheet of many yards square.
The use of the words "positive" and "negative" needs to be guarded by the
following paragraphs from the article on "Chemistry" in the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_. We use the words in their ordinary text-book meaning, and have
not, so far, detected any characteristics whereby an element can be
declared, at sight, to be either positive or negative:--
"When binary compounds, or compounds of two elements, are decomposed by an
electric current, the two elements make their appearance at opposite poles.
These elements which are disengaged at the negative pole are termed
electro-positive or positive or basylous elements, while those disengaged
at the positive pole are termed electro-negative or negative or chlorous
elements. But the difference between these two classes of elements is one
of degree only, and they gradually merge into each other; moreover the
electric relations of elements are not absolute, but vary according to the
state of combination in which they exist, so that it is just as impossible
to divide the elements into two classes according to this property as it is
to separate them into two distinct classes of metals and non-metals."
We follow here the grouping according to external forms, and the student
should compare it with the groups marked in the lemniscate arrangement
shown in Article II (p. 377, properly p. 437, February), reading the group
by the disks that fall below each other; thus the first group is H, Cl, Br,
I (hydrogen, chlorine, bromine, iodine) and a blank for an undiscovered
element. The elements grow denser in descending order; thus hydrogen is an
invisible gas; chlorine a denser gas visible by its colour; bromine is a
liquid; iodine is a solid--all, of course, when temperature and pressure
are normal. By the lowering of temperature and the increase of pressure, an
element which is normally gaseous becomes a liquid, and then a solid.
Solid, liquid, gaseous, are three interchangeable states of matter, and an
element does not alter its constitution by changing its state. So far as a
chemical "atom" is concerned, it matters not whether it be drawn for
investigation from a solid, a liquid, or a gas; but the internal
arrangements of the "atoms" become much more complicated as they become
denser and denser, as is seen by the complex arrangements necessitated by
the presence of the 3546 ultimate atoms contained in the chemical "atom" of
gold, as compared with the simple arrangement of the 18 ultimate atoms of
hydrogen.
According to the lemniscate arrangement, we should commence with hydrogen
as the head of the first negative group, but as it differs wholly from
those placed with it, it is better to take it by itself. Hydrogen is the
lightest of the known elements, and is therefore taken as 1 in ordinary
chemistry, and all atomic weights are multiples of this. We take it as 18,
because it contains eighteen ultimate atoms, the smallest number we have
found in a chemical element. So our "number-weights" are obtained by
dividing the total number of atoms in an element by 18 (see p. 349,
January).
[Illustration: PLATE V.]
HYDROGEN (Plate V, 1).--Hydrogen not only stands apart from its reputed
group by not having the characteristic dumb-bell shape, well shown in
sodium (Plate I, opposite p. 349, January), but it also stands apart in
being positive, serving as a base, not as a chlorous, or acid, radical,
thus "playing the part of a metal," as in hydrogen chloride (hydrochloric
acid), hydrogen sulphate (sulphuric acid), etc.
It is most curious that hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, the most widely
spread gases, all differ fundamentally in form from the groups they
reputedly head.[19] Hydrogen was the first chemical element examined by us,
nearly thirteen years ago, and I reproduce here the substance of what I
wrote in November, 1895, for we have nothing to add to nor amend in it.
Hydrogen consists of six small bodies, contained in an egg-like form (the
outer forms are not given in the diagrams). The six little bodies are
arranged in two sets of three, forming two triangles which are not
interchangeable, but are related to each other as object and image. The six
bodies are not all alike; they each contain three ultimate physical atoms,
but in four of the bodies the three atoms are arranged in a triangle, and
in the remaining two in a line.
HYDROGEN: 6 bodies of 3 18
Atomic weight 1
Number weight 18/18 1
I.--THE DUMB-BELL GROUP.
I a.--This group consists of Cl, Br, and I (chlorine, bromine and iodine);
they are monads, diamagnetic and negative.
CHLORINE (Plate V, 2).--As already said, the general form is that of the
dumb-bell, the lower and upper parts each consisting of twelve funnels, six
sloping upwards and six downwards, the funnels radiating outwards from a
central globe, and these two parts being united by a connecting rod (see,
again, sodium, Plate I).
The funnel (shown flat as an isosceles triangle, standing on its apex) is a
somewhat complicated structure, of the same type as that in sodium (Plate
VI, 2), the difference consisting in the addition of one more globe,
containing nine additional atoms. The central globe is the same as in
sodium, but the connecting rod differs. We have here a regular arrangement
of five globes, containing three, four, five, four, three atoms
respectively, whereas sodium has only three bodies, containing four, six,
four. But copper and silver, its congeners, have their connecting rods of
exactly the same pattern as the chlorine rod, and the chlorine rod
reappears in both bromine and iodine. These close similarities point to
some real relation between these groups of elements, which are placed, in
the lemniscates, equi-distant from the central line, though one is on the
swing which is going towards that line and the other is on the swing away
from it.
CHLORINE: Upper part {12 funnels of 25 atoms 300
{Central globe 10
Lower part same 310
Connecting rod 19
----
Total 639
----
Atomic weight 35.473
Number weight 639/18 35.50
(The Atomic Weights are mostly from Erdmann, and the Number Weights are
those ascertained by us by counting the atoms as described on p. 349,
January, and dividing by 18. Prof. T.W. Richards, in _Nature_, July 18,
1907, gives 35.473.)
BROMINE (Plate V, 3).--In bromine, each funnel has three additional bodies,
ovoid in shape, an addition of 33 atoms being thus made without any
disturbance of form; two pairs of atoms are added to the central globe, and
a rearrangement of the atoms is effected by drawing together and lessening
the swing of the pair of triplets, thus making symmetrical room for the
newcomers. The connecting rod remains unchanged. The total number of atoms
is thus raised from the 639 of chlorine to 1439. Over and over again, in
these investigations, were we reminded of Tyndall's fascinating description
of crystal building, and his fancy of the tiny, ingenious builders busied
therein. Truly are there such builders, and the ingenuity and effectiveness
of their devices are delightful to see.[20]
BROMINE: Upper part {12 funnels of 58 atoms 696
{Central globe 14
Lower part same 710
Connecting rod 19
----
Total 1439
----
Atomic weight 79.953
Number weight 1459/18 79.944
IODINE (Plate V, 4).--We find herein that the central globe gains 4 atoms,
the two pairs becoming 2 quartets; the connecting rod exactly reproduces
the rods of chlorine and bromine; the funnel is also that of bromine,
except that five bodies, containing 35 atoms, are added to it. The 1439
atoms of bromine are thus raised to 2887.
IODINE: Upper Part {12 funnels of 90 atoms 1116
{Central globe 18
Lower part same 1134
Connecting rod 19
----
Total 2287
----
Atomic weight 126.01
Number weight 2287/18 127.055
The plan underlying the building up of groups is here clearly shown; a
figure is built up on a certain plan, in this case a dumb-bell; in the
succeeding members of the group additional atoms are symmetrically
introduced, modifying the appearance, but following the general idea; in
this case the connecting rod remains unaltered, while the two ends become
larger and larger, more and more overshadowing it, and causing it to become
shorter and thicker. Thus a group is gradually formed by additional
symmetrical additions. In the undiscovered remaining member of the group we
may suppose that the rod will have become still more egg-like, as in the
case of gold.
I b.--The corresponding positive group to that which we have been
considering consists of Na, Cu, Ag, and Au (sodium, copper, silver and
gold), with an empty disk between silver and gold, showing where an element
ought to be. These four elements are monads, diamagnetic, and positive, and
they show the dumb-bell arrangement, although it is much modified in gold;
we may presume that the undiscovered element between silver and gold would
form a link between them.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.]
SODIUM (Plate VI, 2) has been already described (p. 349, January), as a
type of the group, so we need only refer to its internal arrangement in
order to note that it is the simplest of the dumb-bell group. Its twelve
funnels show only four enclosed bodies, the same as we see in chlorine,
bromine, iodine, copper and silver, and which is very little modified in
gold. Its central globe is the simplest of all, as is its connecting rod.
We may therefore take it that sodium is the ground-plan of the whole group.
SODIUM: Upper part
{ 12 funnels of 16 each 192
{ Central globe 10
Lower part same 202
Connecting rod 14
----
Total 418
----
Atomic weight 23.88
Number weight 418/19 23.22
COPPER (Plate VI, 3) introduces an addition in the funnel, that we shall
find elsewhere, _e.g._, in silver, gold, iron, platinum, zinc, tin, the
triangular arrangement near the mouth of the funnel and adds to the ten
atoms in this nineteen more in three additional enclosed bodies, thus
raising the number of atoms in a funnel from the sixteen of sodium to
forty-five. The number in the central globe is doubled, and we meet for the
first time the peculiar cigar or prism-shaped six-atomed arrangement, that
is one of the most common of atomic groups. It ought to imply some definite
quality, with its continual recurrence. The central column is the three,
four, five, four, three, arrangement already noted.
COPPER: Upper part {12 funnels of 45 atoms 540
{Central globe 20
Lower part same 560
Connecting rod 19
----
Total 1139
----
Atomic weight 63.12
Number weight 1139/18 63.277
SILVER (Plate VI, 4) follows copper in the constitution of five of the
bodies enclosed in the funnels. But the triangular group contains
twenty-one atoms as against ten, and three ovoids, each containing three
bodies with eleven atoms, raise the number of atoms in a funnel to
seventy-nine. The central globe is decreased by five, and the prisms have
disappeared. The connecting rod is unaltered.
SILVER: Upper part {12 funnels of 79 atoms 948
{Central globe 15
Lower part same 963
Connecting rod 19
----
Total 1945
----
Atomic weight 107.93
Number weight 1945/18 108.055
(This atomic weight is given by Stas, in _Nature_, August 29, 1907, but it
has been argued later that the weight should not be above 107.883.)
[Illustration: PLATE VII.]
GOLD (Plate VII) is so complicated that it demands a whole plate to itself.
It is difficult to recognize the familiar dumb-bell in this elongated egg,
but when we come to examine it, the characteristic groupings appear. The
egg is the enormously swollen connecting rod, and the upper and lower parts
with their central globes are the almond-like projections above and below,
with the central ovoid. Round each almond is a shadowy funnel (not drawn in
the diagram), and within the almond is the collection of bodies shown in
_e_, wherein the two lowest bodies are the same as in every other member of
the negative and positive groups; the third, ascending, is a very slight
modification of the other thirds; the fourth is a union and re-arrangement
of the fourth and fifth; the fifth, of four ovoids, adds one to the three
ovoids of bromine, iodine and silver; the triangular group is like that in
copper and silver, though with 28 atoms instead of 10 or 21, and it may be
noted that the cone in iron has also 28. The central body in the ovoid is
very complicated, and is shown in _c_, the bodies on each side, _d_, are
each made up of two tetrahedra, one with four six-atomed prisms at its
angles, and the other with four spheres, a pair with four atoms and a pair
with three. We then come to the connecting rod. One of the four similar
groups in the centre is enlarged in _a_, and one of the sixteen circling
groups is enlarged in b. These groups are arranged in two planes inclined
to one another.
GOLD: Upper part
{ 12 funnels of 97 atoms 1164
{ Central ovoid {c 101
{2 d, 38 76
Lower part same 1341
Connecting rod { 4 a 84 336
{16 b 33 528
----
Total 3546
----
Atomic weight 195.74
Number weight 3546/18 197
It may be noted that the connecting rod is made up of exactly sixteen atoms
of occultum, and that sixteen such atoms contain 864 ultimate atoms, the
exact member of atoms in titanium.
* * * * *
III.
Occultum was observed by us in 1895, and, finding that it was so light, and
so simple in its composition, we thought that it might be helium, of which
we were unable, at the time, to obtain a sample. When, however, helium
itself came under observation in 1907, it proved to be quite different from
the object before observed, so we dubbed the unrecognised object Occultum,
until orthodox science shall find it and label it in proper fashion.
OCCULTUM (Plate VI, 1).
We here meet the tetrahedron for the first time, with each angle occupied
by a six-atomed group, the atoms arranged as on the end triangles of a
prism. This form recurs very often, and was noted, last month, as seen in
copper (Plate VI, 3); it revolves with extreme rapidity around its
longitudinal axis, and looks like a pencil sharpened at both ends, or a
cigar tapering at both ends; we habitually spoke of it as "the cigar." It
appears to be strongly coherent, for, as will be seen below, its six atoms
remain attached to each other as meta-compounds and even when divided into
two triplets as hyper-compounds, they revolve round each other.
Above the tetrahedron is a balloon-shaped figure, apparently drawn into
shape by the attraction of the tetrahedron. The body below the tetrahedron
looks like a coil of rope, and contains fifteen atoms; they are arranged on
a slanting disk in a flat ring, and the force goes in at the top of one
atom, and out of the bottom of it into the top of the next, and so on,
making a closed circuit. The two little spheres, each containing a triplet,
are like fill-up paragraphs to a compositor--they seem to be kept standing
and popped in where wanted. The sphere marked _x_ is a proto-compound, the
balloon when set free.
As was noted under gold (p. 41), sixteen occultum bodies, re-arranged, make
up the connecting rod in gold:--
OCCULTUM: Tetrahedron 24
Balloon 9
Triplets 6
Rope-circle 15
----
Total 54
----
Atomic weight Not known
Number weight 54/18 3
DISSOCIATION OF ATOMS.
Before proceeding to the study of other chemical atoms, as to their general
internal arrangements, it is desirable to follow out, in those already
shown, the way in which these atoms break up into simpler forms, yielding
successively what we have called proto-, meta-, and hyper-compounds. It is
naturally easier to follow these in the simpler atoms than in the more
complex, and if the earlier dissociations are shown, the latter can be more
readily and more intelligibly described.
The first thing that happens on removing a gaseous atom from its "hole"
(see pp. 21 to 23) or encircling "wall," is that the contained bodies are
set free, and, evidently released from tremendous pressure, assume
spherical or ovoid forms, the atoms within each re-arranging themselves,
more or less, within the new "hole" or "wall." The figures are, of course,
three-dimensional, and often remind one of crystals; tetrahedral,
octagonal, and other like forms being of constant occurrence. In the
diagrams of the proto-compounds, the constituent atoms are shown by dots.
In the diagrams of the meta-compounds the dot becomes a heart, in order to
show the resultants of the lines of force. In the diagrams of the
hyper-compounds the same plan is followed. The letters _a_, _b_, _c_, &c.,
enable the student to follow the breaking up of each group through its
successive stages.
HYDROGEN (Plate V, 1).
[Illustration]
The six bodies contained in the gaseous atom instantaneously re-arrange
themselves within two spheres; the two linear triplets unite with one
triangular triplet, holding to each other relative positions which, if
connected by three right lines, would form a triangle with a triplet at
each angle; the remaining three triangular triplets similarly arrange
themselves in the second sphere. These form the proto-compounds of
hydrogen.
In the dissociation of these, each group breaks up into two, the two linear
triplets joining each other and setting free their triangular comrade,
while two of the triangular triplets similarly remain together, casting out
the third, so that hydrogen yields four meta-compounds.
In the hyper-condition, the connexion between the double triplets is
broken, and they become four independent groups, two like ix, in the
hyper-types (p. 25), and two remaining linear, but rearranging their
internal relations; the two remaining groups break up into two pairs and a
unit.
The final dissociation sets all the atoms free.
OCCULTUM (Plate VI, 1).
[Illustration]
On the first dissociation of the component parts of occultum, the
tetrahedron separates as a whole, with its four "cigars," flattening itself
out within its hole, _a_; two "cigars" are positive and two negative,
marked respectively _a_ and _a'_. The rope becomes a ring within a sphere,
_b_, and the two bodies _d_ _d_, which are loose in the gaseous atom, come
within this ring. The balloon becomes a sphere.
On further dissociation, the "cigars" go off independently, showing two
types, and these again each divide into triplets, as meta-compounds. _B_,
on the meta-level, casts out the two _d_ bodies, which become independent
triplets, and the "rope" breaks into two, a close ring of seven atoms and a
double cross of eight. These subdivide again to form hyper-compounds, the
ring yielding a quintet and a pair, and the double cross separating into
its two parts.
The balloon, _c_, becomes much divided, the cohesion of its parts being
slight; it forms two triplets, a pair and a unit, and these set free, on
further dissociation, no less than five separate atoms and two duads.
The two triplets of _d_ each cast out an atom on dissociation, and form two
pairs and two units.
SODIUM (Plate VI, 2).
It is convenient to consider sodium next, because it is the basic pattern
on which not only copper, silver and gold are formed, but also chlorine,
bromine and iodine.
[Illustration]
When sodium is set free from its gaseous condition, it divides up into
thirty-one bodies--twenty-four separate funnels, four bodies derived from
the two central globes, and three from the connecting rod. The funnels
become spheres, and each contains four enclosed spheres, with more or less
complicated contents. Each central globe yields a sextet and a quartet, and
the rod sets free two quartets and a peculiarly formed sextet.
When the proto-compounds are dissociated, the funnel-sphere sets free: (1)
the contents of _a_, rearranged into two groups of four within a common
sphere; the sphere yields four duads as hyper-compounds; (2) the contents
of _b_, which unite themselves into a quartet, yielding two duads as
hyper-compounds; and (3) the contents of the two spheres, _c_, which
maintain their separation as meta-compounds, and become entirely
independent, the atoms within the sphere revolving round each other, but
the spheres ceasing their revolution round a common axis, and going off in
different directions. The atoms break off from each other, and gyrate in
independent solitude as hyper-"compounds." Thus each funnel yields finally
ten hyper-bodies.
The part of the central globe, marked _d_, with its six atoms, whirling
round a common centre, becomes two triplets, at the meta-stage, preparing
for the complete separation of these as hyper-bodies. The second part of
the same globe, marked _e_, a whirling cross, with an atom at each point,
becomes a quartet in the meta-state, in which three atoms revolve round a
fourth, and in the hyper-state this central atom is set free, leaving a
triplet and a unit.
Each of the two bodies marked _f_, liberated from the connecting rod, shows
four atoms whirling round a common centre, exactly resembling _e_ in
appearance; but there must be some difference of inner relations, for, in
the meta-state, they re-arrange themselves as two pairs, and divide into
two as hyper-bodies.
The body marked _g_ is a four-sided pyramid, with two closely joined atoms
at its apex; these still cling to each in mutual revolution as a meta-body,
encircled by a ring of four, and this leads to a further dissociation into
three pairs on the hyper-level.
CHLORINE (Plate V, 2).
[Illustration]
The description of the funnel of sodium applies to that of chlorine, until
we come to the body nearest the mouth, the sphere containing three
additional bodies; this remains within the funnel in the first
dissociation, so that again we have twenty-four separate funnels as
proto-compounds; the central globes are the same as in sodium, and yield
the same four bodies; the connecting rod sets free five bodies, of which
two are the same; we have thus thirty-three separate bodies as the result
of the dissociation of chlorine into its proto-compounds. As all the
compounds which are in sodium break up in the same way into meta- and
hyper-compounds, we need not repeat the process here. We have only to
consider the new meta- and hyper-compounds of the highest sphere within the
funnel, and the two triplets and one quintet from the connecting rod.
The additional body within the proto-funnel is of a very simple character,
three contained triangles within the flattened sphere. On release from the
funnel, on the meta-level, the atoms rearrange themselves in a whirling set
of three triplets, and these break off from each other as hyper-compounds.
The two triplets from the connecting rod, also, are of the simplest
character and need not delay us. The five-atomed body, a four-sided pyramid
as a proto-compound, becomes a ring whirling round a centre on the meta,
and two pairs with a unit on the hyper.
BROMINE (Plate V, 3).
Three additional bodies appear at the top of the funnel, which otherwise
repeats that of chlorine. The connecting rod is the same and may be
disregarded. The central globes become more complex. The additions are,
however, of very easy types, and hence are readily dealt with. Each of the
three similar ovoid bodies contains two triplets--each a triangle and a
quintet--a four-sided pyramid. These are the same, as may be seen in the
connecting rod of chlorine, and we need not repeat them. Only the globe
remains. This does not break up as a proto-compound but is merely set free,
_a_ and the 2 _bs_ whirling in a plane vertical to the paper and the two
smaller bodies, _cc_, whirling on a plane at right angles to the other.
These two disengage themselves, forming a quartet as a meta-compound, while
_a_ makes a whirling cross and _bb_ a single sextet; these further
dissociate themselves into four pairs and two triplets.
IODINE (Plate V, 4).
[Illustration]
Iodine has nothing new to give us, except five similar ovoid bodies at the
top of each funnel, and two quartets instead of two pairs in the central
globe. The ovoid bodies become spheres when the funnels are thrown off, and
a crystalline form is indicated within the sphere. The atoms are arranged
in two tetrahedra with a common apex, and the relationship is maintained in
the meta-body, a septet. The latter breaks up into two triplets and a unit
on the hyper-level. In the central globes, the _a_ of bromine is repeated
twice instead of the pairs in _cc_.
COPPER (Plate VI, 3).
We have already disposed of occultum, on this plate, and of sodium, which
lies at the root of both groups. Copper, we now find, is also very largely
off our hands, as the funnel provides us with only two new types--two
spheres--each containing five atoms in a new arrangement, and the
triangular body at the mouth with its ten atoms. This triangular body, with
an increased number of atoms, reappears in various other chemical elements.
The central globes are different from any we have had before, in their
internal arrangement, but the constituents are familiar; there are two
contained spheres with four atoms each, the _a_ in the globe of bromine
(see above) and 2 "cigars." The "cigars" may be followed under occultum
(see above). The connecting rod is as in chlorine, bromine and iodine.
The atoms in the bodies _a_ and _b_ are curiously arranged. _A_ consists of
two square-based pyramids turned so as to meet at their apices, and breaks
up into two quartet rings and a duad. _B_ is again two four-sided pyramids,
but the bases are in contact and set at right angles to each other; the
second apex is not seen, as it is directly below the first. The pyramids
separate as meta-bodies, and the atoms assume the peculiar arrangement
indicated and then break up into four pairs and two units on the hyper
level.
* * * * *
IV.
SILVER (Plate VI, 4 and Ag below).
Silver presents us with only two new bodies, and even these are only new by
slight additions to old models. The triangular shaped body at the apex of
the funnel, containing 21 atoms, is intermediate between the similar bodies
in copper and iron. As a proto-element it becomes three triangles, joined
at their apices, in fact a tetrahedron in which no atoms are distributed on
the fourth face. The faces separate on the meta level and give three
seven-atomed figures, and each of these breaks up into two triplets and a
unit. The central globe only differs from that of bromine by the addition
of one atom, which gives the familiar four-sided pyramid with a square base
as in chlorine (see p. 46).
GOLD (Plate VII and Au below).
[Illustration]
The disintegration of gold first yields forty-seven bodies on the
proto-level; the twenty-four funnels separate, and the central globes which
hold each twelve together set free their six contained globes (_c_, _d_),
thirty bodies being thus liberated. The sixteen bodies on the central
inclined planes, marked _b_, break away, their central globe, with its four
contained globes, remaining unchanged. But this condition does not last.
The motion of the funnels changes and thus the funnels cease to exist and
their contents are set free, each funnel thus liberating nine independent
bodies; the sixteen _b_ separate into two each; the four _a_ liberate five
each; the two _c_ set free thirteen each; the four _d_ finally liberate two
each: 302 proto elements in all.
The funnel is almost that of iodine, re-arranged. Four of the first ring in
the iodine funnel are replaced by the triangular body, which becomes a
four-sided pyramid with an occupied base. The second ring of three ovoids
in iodine becomes four in gold, but the internal arrangement of each ovoid
is the same. The next two spheres in the iodine funnel coalesce into one
sphere, with similar contents, in the gold funnel. The fifth in iodine is
slightly rearranged to form the fourth in descent in gold, and the
remaining two are the same. _B_ has been broken up under occultum (p. 628)
and can be followed there. The sixteen rings set free from the four _a_,
after gyrating round the central body, now become a sphere, break up, as in
occultum (see p. 44) into a meta seven-atomed ring and an eight-atomed
double cross, and so on to the hyper level. The sphere with its two
contained bodies breaks up into eight triangles on the meta level, and each
of these, on the hyper, into a duad and a unit. The twelve septets of _c_
assume the form of prisms as in iodine (see p. 48) and pursue the same
course, while its central body, a four-sided pyramid with its six
attendants, divides on the meta level into six duads, revolving round a
ring with a central atom as in chlorine (p. 47), the duads going off
independently on the hyper-level and the ring breaking up as in chlorine.
The "cigar" tetrahedron of _d_ follows its course as in occultum, and the
other sets free two quartets and two triplets on the meta level, yielding
six duads and two units as hyper compounds. It will be seen that, complex
as gold is, it is composed of constituents already familiar, and has iodine
and occultum as its nearest allies.
II AND IIa.--THE TETRAHEDRAL GROUPS.
II.--This group consists of beryllium (glucinum), calcium, strontium and
barium, all diatomic, paramagnetic and positive. The corresponding group
consists of oxygen, chromium, molybdenum, wolfram (tungsten) and uranium,
with a blank disk between wolfram and uranium: these are diatomic,
paramagnetic, and negative. We have not examined barium, wolfram, or
uranium.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.]
BERYLLIUM (Plate III, 2, and Plate VIII, 1). In the tetrahedron four
funnels are found, the mouth of each funnel opening on one of its faces.
The funnels radiate from a central globe, and each funnel contains four
ovoids each with ten atoms within it arranged in three spheres. In the
accompanying diagrams one funnel with its four ovoids is shown and a single
ovoid with its three spheres, containing severally three, four, and three
atoms, is seen at the left-hand corner of the plate (7 _a_). The members of
this group are alike in arrangement, differing only in the increased
complexity of the bodies contained in the funnels. Beryllium, it will be
observed, is very simple, whereas calcium and strontium are complicated.
BERYLLIUM: 4 funnels of 40 atoms 160
Central globe 4
----
Total 164
----
Atomic weight 9.01
Number weight 164/18 9.11
CALCIUM (Plate VIII, 2) shows in each funnel three contained spheres, of
which the central one has within it seven ovoids identical with those of
beryllium, and the spheres above and below it contain each five ovoids (7
_b_) in which the three contained spheres have, respectively, two, five,
and two atoms. The central globe is double, globe within globe, and is
divided into eight segments, radiating from the centre like an orange; the
internal part of the segment belonging to the inner globe has a triangular
body within it, containing four atoms (7 _c_), and the external part,
belonging to the encircling globe, shows the familiar "cigar" (7 _d_). In
this way 720 atoms are packed into the simple beryllium type.
CALCIUM: 4 funnels of 160 atoms 640
Central globe 80
----
Total 720
----
Atomic weight 39.74
Number weight 720/18 40.00
STRONTIUM (Plate VIII, 3) shows a still further complication within the
funnels, no less than eight spheres being found within each. Each of the
highest pair contains four subsidiary spheres, with five, seven, seven,
five atoms, respectively (7 _e_, _g_, _f_). The _g_ groups are identical
with those in gold, but difference of pressure makes the containing body
spherical instead of ovoid; similar groups are seen in the top ring of the
iodine funnel, where also the "hole" is ovoid in form. The second pair of
spheres contains ten ovoids (7 _b_) identical with those of calcium. The
third pair contains fourteen ovoids (7 _a_) identical with those of
beryllium, while the fourth pair repeats the second, with the ovoids
re-arranged. The internal divisions of the double sphere of the central
globe are the same as in calcium, but the contents differ. The "cigars" in
the external segments are replaced by seven-atomed ovoids (7 _h_)--the
iodine ovoids--and the external segments contain five-atomed triangles (7
_i_). Thus 1,568 atoms have been packed into the beryllium type, and our
wonder is again aroused by the ingenuity with which a type is preserved
while it is adapted to new conditions.
STRONTIUM: 4 funnels of 368 atoms 1472
Central globe 96
----
Total 1568
----
Atomic weight 86.95
Number weight 1568/18 87.11
The corresponding group, headed by oxygen--oxygen, chromium, molybdenum,
wolfram and uranium--offers us another problem in its first member.
OXYGEN (Plate VIII, 4). This was examined by us in 1895, and the
description may be reproduced here with a much improved diagram of its very
peculiar constitution. The gaseous atom is an ovoid body, within which a
spirally-coiled snake-like body revolves at a high velocity, five brilliant
points of light shining on the coils. The appearance given in the former
diagram will be obtained by placing the five septets on one side on the top
of those on the other, so that the ten become in appearance five, and thus
doubling the whole, the doubling point leaving eleven duads on each side.
The composition is, however, much better seen by flattening out the whole.
On the proto level the two snakes separate and are clearly seen.
OXYGEN: Positive snake
{ 55 spheres of 2 atoms }
{ + 5 disks of 7 atoms } 145
Negative snake " 145
----
Total 290
----
Atomic weight 15.87
Number weight 290/18 16.11
CHROMIUM (Plate VIII, 5) "reverts to the ancestral type," the tetrahedron;
the funnel is widened by the arrangement of its contents, three spheres
forming its first ring, as compared with the units in beryllium and
calcium, and the pairs in strontium and molybdenum. Two of these spheres
are identical in their contents--two quintets (7 _f_), a quintet (7 _j_),
and two quintets (7 _e_), _e_ and _f_ being to each other as object and
image. The remaining sphere (7 _b_) is identical with the highest in the
calcium funnel. The remaining two spheres, one below the other, are
identical with the corresponding two spheres in calcium. The central globe,
as regards its external segments, is again identical with that of calcium,
but in the internal segments a six-atomed triangle (7 _k_) is substituted
for the calcium four-atomed one (7 _e_).
CHROMIUM: 4 funnels of 210 atoms 840
Central globe 96
-----
Total 936
-----
Atomic weight 51.74
Number weight 936/18 52.00
MOLYBDENUM (Plate VIII, 6) very closely resembles strontium, differing from
it only in the composition of the highest pair of spheres in the funnels
and in the presence of a little sphere, containing two atoms only, in the
middle of the central globe. The topmost spheres contain no less than eight
subsidiary spheres within each; the highest of these (7 _e_) has four atoms
in it; the next three have four, seven and four (7 _e_ _g_ _e_),
respectively; the next three are all septets (7 _g_), and the last has
four--making in all for these two spheres 88 atoms, as against the 48 in
corresponding spheres of strontium, making a difference of 160 in the four
funnels.
MOLYBDENUM: 4 funnels of 408 atoms 1632
Central globe 98
-----
Total 1730
-----
Atomic weight 95.26
Number weight 1730/18 96.11
II a.--This group contains magnesium, zinc, cadmium, and mercury, with an
empty disk between cadmium and mercury; we did not examine mercury. All are
diatomic, diamagnetic and positive; the corresponding group consists of
sulphur, selenium and tellurium, also all diatomic and diamagnetic, but
negative. The same characteristics of four funnels opening on the faces of
a tetrahedron are found in all, but magnesium and sulphur have no central
globe, and in cadmium and tellurium the globe has become a cross.
[Illustration: PLATE IX.]
MAGNESIUM (Plate IX, 1) introduces us to a new arrangement: each group of
three ovoids forms a ring, and the three rings are within a funnel; at
first glance, there are three bodies in the funnel; on examination each of
these is seen to consist of three, with other bodies, spheres, again within
them. Apart from this, the composition is simple enough, all the ovoids
being alike, and composed of a triplet, a septet and a duad.
MAGNESIUM: 4 funnels of 108 atoms 432
Atomic weight 24.18
Number weight 432/18 24.00
ZINC (Plate IX, 2) also brings a new device: the funnel is of the same type
as that of magnesium, while septets are substituted for the triplets, and
36 additional atoms are thus slipped in. Then we see four spikes,
alternating with the funnels and pointing to the angles, each adding 144
atoms to the total. The spikes show the ten-atomed triangle, already met
with in other metals, three very regular pillars, each with six spheres,
containing two, three, four, four, three, two atoms, respectively. The
supporting spheres are on the model of the central globe, but contain more
atoms. Funnels and spikes alike radiate from a simple central globe, in
which five contained spheres are arranged crosswise, preparing for the
fully developed cross of cadmium. The ends of the cross touch the bottoms
of the funnels.
ZINC: 4 funnels of 144 atoms 576
4 spikes of 144 atoms 576
Central globe 18
-----
Total 1170
-----
Atomic weight 64.91
Number weight 1170/18 65.00
CADMIUM (Plate IX, 3) has an increased complexity of funnels; the diagram
shows one of the three similar segments which lie within the funnels as
cylinders; each of these contains four spheres, three pillars and three
ovoids, like the spike of zinc turned upside down, and the zinc ten-atomed
triangle changed into three ten-atomed ovoids. The centre-piece is a new
form, though prefigured in the central globe of zinc.
CADMIUM: 3 segments of 164 atoms = 492
4 funnels of 492 atoms 1968
Central body 48
-----
Total 2016
-----
Atomic weight 111.60
Number weight 2016/18 112.00
The corresponding negative group is headed by
[Illustration: PLATE X.]
SULPHUR (Plate X, 1), which, like magnesium, has no central globe, and
consists simply of the zinc funnels, much less compressed than zinc but the
same in composition.
SULPHUR: 4 funnels of 144 atoms 576
Atomic weight 31.82
Number weight 576/18 32.00
SELENIUM (Plate X, 2) is distinguished by the exquisite peculiarity,
already noticed, of a quivering star, floating across the mouth of each
funnel, and dancing violently when a ray of light falls upon it. It is
known that the conductivity of selenium varies with the intensity of the
light falling upon it, and it may be that the star is in some way connected
with its conductivity. It will be seen that the star is a very complicated
body, and in each of its six points the two five-atomed spheres revolve
round the seven-atomed cone. The bodies in the funnels resemble those in
magnesium, but a reversed image of the top one is interposed between itself
and the small duad, and each pair has its own enclosure. The central globe
is the same as that of zinc.
SELENIUM: 4 funnels of 198 atoms 792
4 stars of 153 atoms 612
Central globe 18
-----
Total 1422
-----
Atomic weight 78.58
Number weight 1422/18 79.00
TELLURIUM (Plate X, 3), it will be seen, closely resembles cadmium, and has
three cylindrical segments--of which one is figured--making up the funnel.
The contained bodies in the pillars run three, four, five, four, three,
two, instead of starting with two; and a quartet replaces a duad in the
globes above. The central cross only differs from that of cadmium in having
a seven-atomed instead of a four-atomed centre. So close a similarity is
striking.
TELLURIUM: 3 segments of 181 atoms = 543
4 funnels of 543 atoms 2172
Central body 51
-----
Total 2223
-----
Atomic weight 126.64
Number weight 2223/18 123.50
* * * * *
V.
We must now consider the ways in which the members of the tetrahedral
groups break up, and as we proceed with this study we shall find how
continual are the repetitions, and how Nature, with a limited number of
fundamental methods, creates by varied combinations her infinite variety of
forms.
BERYLLIUM (Plate III, 2, and VIII, 1).
[Illustration]
Beryllium offers us four similar funnels and a central globe, and the
proto-elements consist of these five bodies, set free. The funnel, released
from pressure, assumes a spherical form, with its four ovoids spinning
within it, and the central globe remains a sphere, containing a whirling
cross. On the meta level, the ovoids are set free, and two from each funnel
are seen to be positive, two negative--sixteen bodies in all, _plus_ the
cross, in which the resultant force-lines are changed, preparatory to its
breaking into two duads on the hyper level. On that level, the decades
disintegrate into two triplets and a quartet, the positive with the
depressions inward, the negative with the depressions outward.
CALCIUM (Plate VIII, 2).
The funnels, as usual, assume a spherical form on the proto level, and
show, in each case, three spheres containing ovoids. These spheres, still
on the proto level, break free from their containing funnel, as in the case
of gold (p. 49), twelve bodies being thus liberated, while the central
globe breaks up into eight segments, each of which becomes globular, and
contains within it a "cigar" and a somewhat heart-shaped body. Four
spheres, each containing seven ten-atomed ovoids, are identical with those
in beryllium, and can be followed in its diagram. Eight spheres, each
containing five nine-atomed ovoids of a different type, set free, on the
meta level, eighty duads--forty positive and forty negative--and forty
quintets, which are identical with those in chlorine. On the hyper level,
the duads become single atoms, within a sphere, and the central atom from
the quintet is also set free, one hundred and twenty in all. The remaining
four atoms of the quintet divide into two duads.
The central globe, dividing into eight, becomes eight six-atomed spheres on
the meta, the "cigar" behaving as usual, four "cigars" being positive and
four negative, and becoming dissociated into triplets; the four atoms
within the heart-shaped body appear as a tetrahedron, remain together on
the meta level, and break up into duads on the hyper.
STRONTIUM (PLATE VIII, 3).
The third member of this group repeats the _a_ groups of beryllium and the
_b_ groups of calcium, and they dissociate into the bodies already
described under these respectively. The two upper globes in each funnel
repeat each other, but each globe contains four smaller spheres showing
three varieties of forms. The two marked _g_, which are repeated in the
central globe as _h_, are seven-atomed, and appear as spheres or ovoids
according to pressure. They are figured on p. 48, under iodine; _e_ and _f_
are related as object and image, and we have already seen them in copper
(pp. 38 and 48); in each case, as in copper, they unite into a ten-atomed
figure; on the meta level the pair of fours form a ring, and the remaining
two atoms form a duad; _i_, which repeats _f_, makes a ring with the fifth
in the centre, as in the five-atomed _b_ of calcium, as shown above. There
is, thus, nothing new in strontium, but only repetitions of forms already
studied.
OXYGEN (PLATE VIII, 4).
[Illustration]
The disintegration of oxygen as given in 1895 may be repeated here, and the
better presentation given on p. 54 renders it easier to follow the process.
On the proto level the two "snakes" divide; the brilliant disks are
seven-atomed, but are differently arranged, the positive snake having the
atoms arranged as in the iodine ovoids, whereas the negative snake has them
arranged as in a capital H. The snakes show the same extraordinary activity
on the proto level as on the gaseous, twisting and writhing, darting and
coiling. The body of the snake is of two-atomed beads, positive and
negative. On the meta level the snakes break into ten fragments, each
consisting of a disk, with six beads on one side and five on the other,
remaining as lively as the original snake. They shiver into their
constituent disks, and beads on the hyper level, there yielding the ten
disks, five positive and five negative, and the 110 beads, fifty-five
positive and fifty-five negative.
CHROMIUM (PLATE VIII, 5).
When we go on to chromium and molybdenum, we return to our familiar funnels
and central globes, and the secondary spheres within the funnels--quickly
set free, as before, on the proto level--give us no new combinations in
their contained spheres and ovoids. The _a_ of beryllium, the _b_ of
calcium and strontium, and _d_ of calcium, the _e_ and _f_ of strontium,
are all there; _j_ in chromium is the same as the central sphere in the _b_
ovoid. In the central globe, _k_, is a pair of triangles as in hydrogen,
consisting of only six atoms, which on the meta level revolve round each
other, and break up into two duads and two units on the hyper.
MOLYBDENUM (PLATE VIII, 6).
Molybdenum presents us with only two new forms, and these are merely
four-atomed tetrahedra, occurring in pairs as object and image. All the
other bodies have already been analysed.
II a.--We come now to the second great tetrahedral group, which though very
much complicated, is yet, for the most part, a repetition of familiar
forms.
MAGNESIUM (PLATE IX, 1).
[Illustration]
We are still among tetrahedra, so have to do with four funnels, but each
funnel contains three rings, and each ring three ovoids; on the proto level
a triple dissociation takes place, for the funnels let free the rings as
large spheres, in each of which rotate three twelve-atomed ovoids, and then
the ovoids break loose from the spheres, and themselves become spherical,
so that we have finally thirty-six proto compounds from the tetrahedron. On
the meta level the contained bodies, a triplet, Mg _a_, a septet, Mg _b_,
and a duad, Mg _c_, are set free from each globe, thus yielding one hundred
and eight meta compounds. On the hyper level the triplet becomes a duad and
a unit; the duad becomes two units; and the septet a triplet and a quartet.
ZINC (PLATE IX, 2).
We can leave aside the funnel, for the only difference between it and the
magnesium funnel is the substitution of a second septet for the triplet,
and the septet is already shown in the magnesium diagram. We have,
therefore, only to consider the spikes, pointing to the angles of the
enclosing tetrahedron, and the central globe. These are set free on the
proto level and the spikes immediately release their contents, yielding
thus thirty-two separate bodies.
The triangular arrangement at the top of the spike is the same as occurs in
copper (_b_ on p. 48), and can be there followed. One of the three similar
pillars is shown in the accompanying diagram under Zn a. The compressed
long oval becomes a globe, with six bodies revolving within it in a rather
peculiar way: the quartets turn round each other in the middle; the
triplets revolve round them in a slanting ellipse; the duads do the same on
an ellipse slanting at an angle with the first, somewhat as in gold (_a_
and _b_, p. 40). The spheres within the globes at the base of the spikes,
Zn _b_, behave as a cross--the cross is a favourite device in the II _a_
groups. Finally, the central globe, Zn _c_, follows the same cruciform line
of disintegration.
CADMIUM (Plate IX, 3).
[Illustration]
Cadmium follows very closely on the lines of zinc; the pillars of the zinc
spike are reproduced in the rings of the cadmium funnel; the globes are
also the globes of cadmium; so neither of these needs attention. We have
only to consider the three ten-atomed ovoids, which are substituted for the
one ten-atomed triangle of zinc, and the central cross. The ovoids become
spheres (Cd _a_, _b_), the contained bodies revolving within them, _a_
whirling on a diameter of the sphere, cutting it in halves, as it were, and
_b_ whirling round it at right angles; the cross also becomes a sphere (Cd
_c_), but the cruciform type is maintained within it by the relative
positions of the contained spheres in their revolution. The subsequent
stages are shown in the diagram.
SULPHUR (Plate XI, 1).
Sulphur has nothing new, but shows only the funnels already figured in
magnesium, with the substitution of a second septet for the triplet, as in
zinc.
SELENIUM (Plate X, 2).
[Illustration]
The funnel of selenium is a re-arrangement of the twelve-atomed ovoids of
magnesium and the ten-atomed ovoids of cadmium. The funnels, on
disintegrating, set free twelve groups, each containing nine spheres. On
the meta level the ten-atomed bodies are set free, and the twelve-atomed
divide into duads and decads, thus yielding seventy-two decads and
thirty-six duads; the duads, however, at once recombine into hexads, thus
giving only twelve meta elements, or eighty-four in all from the funnels.
The central globe holds together on the proto level, but yields five meta
elements. The star also at first remains a unit on the proto level, and
then shoots off into seven bodies, the centre keeping together, and the six
points becoming spheres, within which the two cones, base to base, whirl in
the centre, and the globes circle round them. On the meta level all the
thirty bodies contained in the star separate from each other, and go on
their independent ways.
Selenium offers a beautiful example of the combination of simple elements
into a most exquisite whole.
TELLURIUM (Plate X, 3).
Tellurium very closely resembles cadmium, and they are, therefore placed on
the same diagram. The pillars are the same as in chlorine and its
congeners, with a duad added at the base. The ten-atomed ovoid is the same
as in cadmium and follows the same course in breaking up. It would be
interesting to know why this duad remains as a duad in selenium and breaks
up into a septad and triad in the other members of the group. It may be due
to the greater pressure to which it is subjected in selenium, or there may
be some other reason. The cross in tellurium is identical with that in
cadmium, except that the centre is seven-atomed instead of four-atomed.
* * * * *
VI.
III AND IIIa.--THE CUBE GROUPS.
We have here four groups to consider, all the members of which are triads,
and have six funnels, opening on the six faces of a cube.
III.--Boron, scandium and yttrium were examined; they are all triatomic,
paramagnetic, and positive. The corresponding group consists of nitrogen,
vanadium and niobium; they are triatomic, paramagnetic, and negative. We
have not examined the remaining members of these groups. In these two
groups nitrogen dominates, and in order to make the comparison easy the
nitrogen elements are figured on both Plate XI and Plate XII. It will be
seen that scandium and yttrium, of the positive group, differ only in
details from vanadium and niobium, of the negative group; the ground-plan
on which they are built is the same. We noted a similar close resemblance
between the positive strontium and the negative molybdenum.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.]
BORON (Plate III, 4, and Plate XI, 1). We have here the simplest form of
the cube; the funnels contain only five bodies--four six-atomed ovoids and
one six-atomed "cigar." The central globe has but four five-atomed spheres.
It is as simple in relation to its congeners as is beryllium to its
group-members.
BORON: 6 funnels of 30 atoms 180
Central globe 20
----
Total 200
----
Atomic weight 10.86
Number weight 200/18 11.11
SCANDIUM (Plate XI, 2). For the first time we meet funnels of different
types, A and B, three of each kind; A appear to be positive and B negative,
but this must be stated with reserve.
In A the boron funnel is reproduced, the "cigar" having risen above its
companion ovoids; but the most important matter to note in respect to this
funnel is our introduction to the body marked _a_ 110. This body was
observed by us first in nitrogen, in 1895, and we gave it the name of the
"nitrogen balloon," for in nitrogen it takes the balloon form, which it
also often assumes in other gaseous elements. Here it appears as a
sphere--the form always assumed on the proto level--and it will be seen, on
reference to the detailed diagram 4 _a_, to be a complicated body,
consisting of six fourteen-atomed globes arranged round a long ovoid
containing spheres with three, four, six, six, four, three, atoms
respectively. It will be observed that this balloon appears in every member
of these two groups, except boron.
The B funnel runs largely to triads, _c_ and _b_, _b_ (see 4 _b_) having
not only a triadic arrangement of spheres within its contained globes, but
each sphere has also a triplet of atoms. In _c_ (see 4 _c_) there is a
triadic arrangement of spheres, but each contains duads. B is completed by
a five-atomed sphere at the top of the funnel. It should be noted that _a_,
_b_ and _c_ all are constituents of nitrogen.
The central globe repeats that of boron, with an additional four-atomed
sphere in the middle.
SCANDIUM: 3 funnels (A) of 140 atoms 420
3 " (B) of 116 " 348
Centre globe 24
----
Total 792
----
Atomic weight 43.78
Number weight 792/18 44.00
YTTRIUM (Plate XI, 3). Here we have a quite new arrangement of bodies
within the funnel--the funnel being of one type only. Two "cigars" whirl on
their own axes in the centre near the top, while four eight-atomed globes
(see 4 _e_) chase each other in a circle round them, spinning madly on
their own axes--this axial spinning seems constant in all contained
bodies--all the time. Lower down in the funnel, a similar arrangement is
seen, with a globe (see 4 _d_)--a nitrogen element--replacing the "cigars,"
and six-atomed ovoids replacing the globes.
The "nitrogen balloon" occupies the third place in the funnel, now showing
its usual shape in combination, while the _b_ globe (see 4 _b_) of scandium
takes on a lengthened form below it.
The central globe presents us with two tetrahedra, recalling one of the
combinations in gold (see Plate VII _d_), and differing from that only by
the substitution of two quartets for the two triplets in gold.
One funnel of yttrium contains exactly the same number of atoms as is
contained in a gaseous atom of nitrogen. Further, _a_, _b_, and _d_ are all
nitrogen elements. We put on record these facts, without trying to draw any
conclusions from them. Some day, we--or others--may find out their
significance, and trace through them obscure relations.
YTTRIUM: 6 funnels of 261 atoms 1566
Central globe 40
----
Total 1606
----
Atomic weight 88.34
Number weight 1606/18 89.22
The corresponding negative group, of nitrogen, vanadium and niobium, is
rendered particularly interesting by the fact that it is headed by
nitrogen, which--like the air, of which it forms so large a part--pervades
so many of the bodies we are studying. What is there in nitrogen which
renders it so inert as to conveniently dilute the fiery oxygen and make it
breathable, while it is so extraordinarily active in some of its compounds
that it enters into the most powerful explosives? Some chemist of the
future, perhaps, will find the secret in the arrangement of its constituent
parts, which we are able only to describe.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.]
NITROGEN (Plate XII, 1) does not assume the cubical form of its relatives,
but is in shape like an egg. Referring again to our 1895 investigations, I
quote from them. The balloon-shaped body (see 4 _a_) floats in the middle
of the egg, containing six small spheres in two horizontal rows, and a long
ovoid in the midst; this balloon-shaped body is positive, and is drawn down
towards the negative body _b_ (see 4 _b_) with its seven contained spheres,
each of which has nine atoms within it--three triads. Four spheres are
seen, in addition to the two larger bodies; two of these (see 4 _d_), each
containing five smaller globes, are positive, and two (see 4 _c_)
containing four smaller globes, are negative.
NITROGEN: Balloon 110
Oval 63
2 bodies of 20 atoms 40
2 " " 24 " 48
----
Total 261
----
Atomic weight 14.01
Number weight 261/18 14.50
VANADIUM (Plate XII, 2) closely follows scandium, having two types of
funnels. Funnel A only differs from that of scandium by having a globe (see
4 _d_) inserted in the ring of four ovoids; funnel B has a six-atomed,
instead of a five-atomed globe at the top, and slips a third globe
containing twenty atoms (see 4 _d_) between the two identical with those of
scandium (see 4 _c_). The central globe has seven atoms in its middle body
instead of four. In this way does vanadium succeed in overtopping scandium
by 126 atoms.
VANADIUM: 3 funnels (A) of 160 atoms 480
3 " (B) " 137 " 411
Central globe 27
----
Total 918
----
Atomic weight 50.84
Number weight 918/18 51.00
NIOBIUM (Plate XII, 3) is as closely related to yttrium as is vanadium to
scandium. The little globes that scamper round the "cigars" contain twelve
atoms instead of eight (see 4 _e_).
The rest of the funnel is the same. In the central globe both the
tetrahedra have "cigars," and a central nine-atomed globe spins round in
the centre (see 4 _f_), seventeen atoms being thus added.
NIOBIUM: 6 funnels of 277 atoms 1662
Central globe 57
----
Total 1719
----
Atomic weight 93.25
Number weight 1719/18 95.50
III a.--Aluminium, gallium and indium were examined from this group. They
are triatomic, diamagnetic, and positive. The corresponding group contains
phosphorus, arsenic and antimony: bismuth also belongs to it, but was not
examined; they are triatomic, diamagnetic and negative. They have no
central globes.
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.]
ALUMINIUM (Plate XIII, 1), the head of the group, is, as usual, simple.
There are six similar funnels, each containing eight ovoids, below which is
a globe.
ALUMINIUM: 6 funnels of 81 atoms 486
Atomic weight 26.91
Number weight 486/18 27.00
GALLIUM (Plate XIII, 2) has two segments in every funnel; in the segment to
the left a "cigar" balances a globe, equally six-atomed, in that of the
right, and the globes to right and left are four-atomed as against
three-atomed. In the next row, the smaller contained globes have six atoms
as against four, and the cones have respectively seven and five. By these
little additions the left-hand funnel boasts one hundred and twelve atoms
as against ninety-eight.
GALLIUM: Left segment 112 atoms }
Right segment 98 " } = 210
6 funnels of 210 atoms 1260
----
Atomic weight 69.50
Number weight 1260/18 70.00
INDIUM (Plate XIII, 3) repeats the segments of gallium exactly, save in the
substitution of a sixteen-atomed body for the seven-atomed cone of the
left-hand segment, and a fourteen-atomed body for the five-atomed
corresponding one in gallium. But each funnel now has three segments
instead of two; three funnels out of the six contain two segments of type A
and one of type B; the remaining three contain two of type B, and one of
type A.
INDIUM: Segment A 121 atoms
Segment B 107 "
3 funnels of 2 A and 1 B ([242 + 107] 3) 1047
3 " " 2 B and 1 A ([214 + 121] 3) 1005
----
Total 2052
----
Atomic weight 114.05
Number weight 2052/18 114.00
The corresponding negative group, phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony, run on
very similar lines to those we have just examined.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.]
PHOSPHORUS (Plate XIV, 1) offers us a very curious arrangement of atoms,
which will give some new forms in breaking up. Two segments are in each
funnel, in fact the only two of group III _a_ which do not show this
arrangement, or a modification thereof, are aluminium and arsenic.
PHOSPHORUS: Left segment 50 atoms
Right segment 43 "
--
93
6 funnels of 93 atoms 558
Atomic weight 30.77
Number weight 558/18 31.00
ARSENIC (Plate XIV, 2) resembles aluminium in having eight internal
sub-divisions in a funnel, and the ovoids which form the top ring are
identical, save for a minute difference that in aluminium the ovoids stand
the reverse way from those in arsenic. It will be noted that in the former
the top and bottom triangles of atoms have the apices upwards, and the
middle one has its apex downwards. In arsenic, the top and bottom ones
point downwards, and the middle one upwards. Arsenic inserts sixteen
spheres between the ovoids and globe shown in aluminium, and thus adds no
less than one hundred and forty-four atoms to each funnel.
ARSENIC: 6 funnels of 225 atoms 1350
Atomic weight 74.45
Number weight 1350/18 75.00
ANTIMONY (Plate XIV, 3) is a close copy of indium, and the arrangement of
types A and B in the funnels is identical. In the middle rings of both A
and B a triplet is substituted for a unit at the centre of the larger
globe. In the lowest body of type A the "cigar" has vanished, and is
represented by a seven-atomed crystalline form.
ANTIMONY: Segment A 128 atoms
Segment B 113 atoms
3 funnels of 2 A and 1 B ([256 + 113]3) 1107
3 " " 2 B and 1 A ([226 + 128]3) 1056
----
Total 2163
----
Atomic weight 119.34
Number weight 120.16
* * * * *
VII.
BORON (Plate III, 4, and Plate XI, 1).
[Illustration]
The disintegration of boron is very simple: the funnels are set free and
assume the spherical form, showing a central "cigar" and four globes each
containing two triplets. The central globe is also set free with its four
quintets, and breaks at once in two. On the meta level the "cigar" breaks
up as usual, and the triplets separate. On the hyper level, the "cigar"
follows its usual course, and the triplets become duads and units. The
globe forms two quintets on the meta level, and these are resolved into
triplets and duads.
SCANDIUM (Plate XI, 2).
In funnel A the "cigar" and the ovoids behave as in boron, but the
"balloon," _a_ 110 (XI, 4), escapes from the funnel as it changes to a
sphere, and holds together on the proto level; on the meta, it yields six
globes each containing seven duads, and these are all set free as duads on
the hyper level; the ovoid is also set free on the meta level becoming a
sphere, and on the hyper level liberates its contained bodies, as two
triplets, two quartets and two sextets.
In funnel B there is a quintet, that behaves like those in the globe of
boron, on escaping from the funnel, in which the bodies remain on the proto
level, with the exception of _b_ 63, which escapes. On the meta level, _c_
(Plate XI, 4), _c_ assumes a tetrahedral form with six atoms at each point,
and these hold together as sextets on the hyper level. At the meta stage,
_b_ (Plate XI, 4 _b_) sets free seven nine-atomed bodies, which become free
triplets on the hyper. The central globe shows a cross at its centre, with
the four quintets whirling round it, on the proto level. On the meta, the
quintets are set free, and follow the boron type, while the cross becomes a
quartet on the meta level, and two duads on the hyper.
YTTRIUM (Plate XI, 3).
[Illustration]
In yttrium, on the proto level, _a_ 110 and _b_ 63 both escape from the
funnel, and behave as in scandium. The ovoids and "cigars," set free on the
meta level, behave as in boron. The central globe breaks up as in gold (pp.
49 and 50), four quartets being set free instead of two quartets and two
triplets. We have only to consider _e_ 8 and _d_ 20 (Plate XI, 4). _E_ 8 is
a tetrahedral arrangement of duads on the meta level, set free as duads on
the hyper. _D_ 20 is an arrangement of pairs of duads at the angles of a
square-based pyramid on the meta, and again free duads on the hyper.
NITROGEN (Plate XII, 1).
Nitrogen has nothing new to show us, all its constituents having appeared
in scandium and yttrium.
VANADIUM (Plate XII, 2).
The A funnel of vanadium repeats the A funnel of scandium, with the
addition of _d_ 20, already studied. In the B funnel scandium B is
repeated, with an addition of _d_ 20 and a sextet for a quintet; the sextet
is the _c_ of the "nitrogen balloon." The central globe follows boron, save
that it has a septet for its centre; this was figured in iodine (p. 48).
NIOBIUM (Plate XII, 3).
Niobium only differs from yttrium by the introduction of triplets for duads
in _e_; on the meta level we have therefore triplets, and on the hyper each
triplet yields a duad and a unit. The only other difference is in the
central globe. The tetrahedra separate as usual, but liberate eight
"cigars" instead of four with four quartets; the central body is simple,
becoming three triads at the angles of a triangle on the meta level, and
three duads and three units on the hyper.
ALUMINIUM (Plate XIII, 1).
[Illustration]
The funnels let go the globes, but the eight ovoids remain within them, so
that seven bodies are let loose on the proto level. When the ovoids are set
free at the meta stage they become spherical and a nine-atomed body is
produced, which breaks up into triangles on the hyper level. The globe
becomes a cross at the meta stage, with one atom from the duads at each arm
in addition to its own, and these form four duads on the hyper, and a unit
from the centre.
GALLIUM (Plate XIII, 2).
In gallium the funnel disappears on the proto level, setting free its two
contained segments, each of which forms a cylinder, thus yielding twelve
bodies on the proto level. On the meta, the three upper globes in each
left-hand segment are set free, and soon vanish, each liberating a cigar
and two septets, the quartet and triad uniting. On the hyper the quartet
yields two duads but the triangle persists. The second set of bodies divide
on the meta level, forming a sextet and a cross with a duad at each arm;
these on the hyper level divide into two triangles, four duads and a unit.
The seven-atomed cone becomes two triangles united by a single atom, and on
the meta level these form a ring round the unit; on the hyper they form
three duads and a unit.
In the right-hand segment, the same policy is followed, the four triads
becoming two sextets, while the central body adds a third to the number.
The second ring has a quartet instead of the sextet, but otherwise breaks
up as does that of the left; the quintet at the base follows that of boron.
INDIUM (Plate XIII, 3).
The complication of three segments of different types in each funnel does
not affect the process of breaking up, and indium needs little attention. A
is exactly the same as the left-hand funnel of gallium, save for the
substitution of a globe containing the familiar "cigar" and two
square-based pyramids. B is the same as the right-hand funnel of gallium,
except that its lowest body consists of two square-based pyramids and a
tetrahedron. All these are familiar.
PHOSPHORUS (Plate XIV, 1).
[Illustration]
The atoms in the six similar spheres in the segments of the phosphorus
funnel are arranged on the eight angles of a cube, and the central one is
attached to all of them. On the meta level five of the nine atoms hold
together and place themselves on the angles of a square-based pyramid; the
remaining four set themselves on the angle of a tetrahedron. They yield, on
the hyper level, two triads, a duad, and a unit. The remaining bodies are
simple and familiar.
ARSENIC (Plate XIV, 2).
Arsenic shows the same ovoids and globe as have already been broken up in
aluminium (see _ante_); the remaining sixteen spheres form nine-atomed
bodies on the meta level, all similar to those of aluminium, thus yielding
twelve positive and twelve negative; the globe also yields a nine-atomed
body, twenty-five bodies of nine.
ANTIMONY (Plate XIV, 3).
Antimony follows closely in the track of gallium and indium, the upper ring
of spheres being identical. In the second ring, a triplet is substituted
for the unit, and this apparently throws the cross out of gear, and we have
a new eleven-atomed figure, which breaks up into a triplet and two quartets
on the hyper level. The lowest seven-atomed sphere of the three at the base
is the same as we met with in copper.
* * * * *
VIII.
IV.--THE OCTAHEDRAL GROUPS.
These groups are at the turns of the spiral in Sir William Crookes'
lemniscates (see p. 28). On the one side is carbon, with below it titanium
and zirconium; on the other silicon, with germanium and tin. The
characteristic form is an octahedron, rounded at the angles and a little
depressed between the faces in consequence of the rounding; in fact, we did
not, at first, recognize it as an octahedron, and we called it the "corded
bale," the nearest likeness that struck us. The members of the group are
all tetrads, and have eight funnels, opening on the eight faces of the
octahedron. The first group is paramagnetic and positive; the corresponding
one is diamagnetic and negative. The two groups are not closely allied in
composition, though both titanium and tin have in common the five
intersecting tetrahedra at their respective centres.
[Illustration: PLATE XV.]
CARBON (Plate III, 5, and XV, 1) gives us the fundamental octahedral form,
which becomes so masked in titanium and zirconium. As before said (p. 30),
the protrusion of the arms in these suggests the old Rosicrucian symbol of
the cross and rose, but they show at their ends the eight carbon funnels
with their characteristic contents, and thus justify their relationship.
The funnels are in pairs, one of each pair showing three "cigars," and
having as its fellow a funnel in which the middle "cigar" is truncated,
thus loosing one atom. Each "cigar" has a leaf-like body at its base, and
in the centre of the octahedron is a globe containing four atoms, each
within its own wall; these lie on the dividing lines of the faces, and each
holds a pair of the funnels together. It seems as though this atom had been
economically taken from the "cigar" to form a link. This will be more
clearly seen when we come to separate the parts from each other. It will be
noticed that the atoms in the "leaves" at the base vary in arrangement,
being alternately in a line and in a triangle.
{ left 27
CARBON: One pair of funnels { right 22
{ centre 1
--
54
4 pairs of funnels of 54 atoms 216
Atomic weight 11.91
Number weight 216/18 12.00
TITANIUM (Plate III, 6, and XV, 2) has a complete carbon atom distributed
over the ends of its four arms, a pair of funnels with their linking atom
being seen in each. Then, in each arm, comes the elaborate body shown as 3
_c_, with its eighty-eight atoms. A ring of twelve ovoids (3 _d_) each
holding within itself fourteen atoms, distributed among three contained
globes--two quartets and a sextet--is a new device for crowding in
material. Lastly comes the central body (4 _e_) of five intersecting
tetrahedra, with a "cigar" at each of their twenty points--of which only
fifteen can be shown in the diagram--and a ring of seven atoms round an
eighth, that forms the minute centre of the whole. Into this elaborate body
one hundred and twenty-eight atoms are built.
TITANIUM: One carbon atom 216
4 _c_ of 88 atoms 352
12 _d_ of 14 " 168
Central globe 128
----
Total 864
----
Atomic weight 47.74
Number weight 864/18 48.00
ZIRCONIUM (Plate XV, 3) has exactly the same outline as titanium, the
carbon atom is similarly distributed, and the central body is identical.
Only in 5 _c_ and _d_ do we find a difference on comparing them with 4 _c_
and d. The _c_ ovoid in zirconium shows no less than fifteen secondary
globes within the five contained in the ovoid, and these, in turn, contain
altogether sixty-nine smaller spheres, with two hundred and twelve atoms
within them, arranged in pairs, triplets, quartets, quintets, a sextet and
septets. Finally, the ovoids of the ring are also made more elaborate,
showing thirty-six atoms instead of fourteen. In this way the clever
builders have piled up in zirconium no less than 1624 atoms.
ZIRCONIUM: One Carbon atom 216
4 _c_ of 212 atoms 848
12 _d_ of 36 " 432
Central globe 128
----
Total 1624
----
Atomic weight 89.85
Number weight 90.22
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.]
SILICON (Plate XVI, 1) is at the head of the group which corresponds to
carbon on the opposite turn of the lemniscate. It has the usual eight
funnels, containing four ovoids in a circle, and a truncated "cigar" but no
central body of any kind. All the funnels are alike.
SILICON: 8 funnels of 65 atoms 520
Atomic weight 28.18
Number weight 520/18 28.88
GERMANIUM (Plate XVI, 2) shows the eight funnels, containing each four
segments (XVI, 4), within which are three ovoids and a "cigar." In this
case the funnels radiate from a central globe, formed of two intersecting
tetrahedra, with "cigars" at each point enclosing a four-atomed globe.
GERMANIUM: 8 funnels of 156 atoms 1248
Central globe 52
----
Total 1300
----
Atomic weight 71.93
Number weight 1300/18 72.22
TIN (Plate XVI, 3) repeats the funnel of germanium, and the central globe
we met with in titanium, of five intersecting tetrahedra, carrying twenty
"cigars"; the latter, however, omits the eight-atomed centre of the globe
that was found in titanium, and hence has one hundred and twenty atoms
therein instead of one hundred and twenty-eight. Tin, to make room for the
necessary increase of atoms, adopts the system of spikes, which we met with
in zinc (see Plate IX, 2); these spikes, like the funnels, radiate from the
central globe, but are only six in number. The twenty-one-atomed cone at
the head of the spike we have already seen in silver, and we shall again
find it in iridium and platinum; the pillars are new in detail though not
in principle, the contained globes yielding a series of a triplet, quintet,
sextet, septet, sextet, quintet, triplet.
TIN: 8 funnels of 156 atoms 1248
6 spikes of 126 " 756
Central globe 120
----
Total 2124
----
Atomic weight 118.10
Number weight 2124/18 118.00
V.--THE BARS GROUPS.
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.]
Here, for the first time, we find ourselves a little at issue with the
accepted system of chemistry. Fluorine stands at the head of a
group--called the inter-periodic--whereof the remaining members are (see
Crookes' table, p. 28), manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel; ruthenium,
rhodium, palladium; osmium, iridium, platinum. If we take all these as
group V, we find that fluorine and manganese are violently forced into
company with which they have hardly any points of relationship, and that
they intrude into an otherwise very harmonious group of closely similar
composition. Moreover, manganese reproduces the characteristic lithium
"spike" and not the bars of those into whose company it is thrust, and it
is thus allied with lithium, with which indeed it is almost identical. But
lithium is placed by Crookes at the head of a group, the other members of
which are potassium, rubidium and cæsium (the last not examined). Following
these identities of composition, I think it is better to remove manganese
and fluorine from their incongruous companions and place them with lithium
and its allies as V _a_, the Spike Groups, marking, by the identity of
number, similarities of arrangement which exist, and by the separation the
differences of composition. It is worth while noting what Sir William
Crookes, in his "Genesis of the Elements," remarks on the relations of the
interperiodic group with its neighbours. He says: "These bodies are
interperiodic because their atomic weights exclude them from the small
periods into which the other elements fall, and because their chemical
relations with some members of the neighbouring groups show that they are
probably interperiodic in the sense of being in transition stages."
Group V in every case shows fourteen bars radiating from a centre as shown
in iron, Plate IV, 1. While the form remains unchanged throughout, the
increase of weight is gained by adding to the number of atoms contained in
a bar. The group is made up, not of single chemical elements, as in all
other cases, but of sub-groups, each containing three elements, and the
relations within each sub-group are very close; moreover the weights only
differ by two atoms per bar, making a weight difference of twenty-eight in
the whole. Thus we have per bar:--
Iron 72 Palladium 136
Nickel 74 Osmium 245
Cobalt 76 Iridium 247
Ruthenium 132 Platinum A 249
Rhodium 134 Platinum B 257
It will be noticed (Plate XVII, 3, 4, 5,) that each bar has two sections,
and that the three lower sections in iron, cobalt and nickel are identical;
in the upper sections, iron has a cone of twenty-eight atoms, while cobalt
and nickel have each three ovoids, and of these the middle ones alone
differ, and that only in their upper globes, this globe being four-atomed
in cobalt and six-atomed in nickel.
The long ovoids within each bar revolve round the central axis of the bar,
remaining parallel with it, while each spins on its own axis; the iron cone
spins round as though impaled on the axis.
14 bars of 72 atoms 1008
Atomic weight 55.47
Number weight 1008/18 56.00
IRON (Plate IV, 1, and XVII, 3):
14 bars of 74 atoms 1036
Atomic weight 57.70
Number weight 1036/18 57.55
COBALT (Plate XVII, 4):
14 bars of 76 atoms 1064
Atomic weight 58.30
Number weight 1064/18 59.11
NICKEL (Plate XVII, 4):
(The weight of cobalt, as given in Erdmann's _Lehrbuch_, is 58.55, but
Messrs. Parker and Sexton, in _Nature_, August 1, 1907, give the weight, as
the result of their experiments, as 57.7.)
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.]
The next sub-group, ruthenium, rhodium, and palladium, has nothing to
detain us. It will be observed that each bar contains eight segments,
instead of the six of cobalt and nickel; that ruthenium and palladium have
the same number of atoms in their upper ovoids, although in ruthenium a
triplet and quartet represent the septet of palladium; and that in
ruthenium and rhodium the lower ovoids are identical, though one has the
order: sixteen, fourteen, sixteen, fourteen; and the other: fourteen,
sixteen, fourteen, sixteen. One constantly asks oneself: What is the
significance of these minute changes? Further investigators will probably
discover the answer.
14 bars of 132 atoms 1848
Atomic weight 100.91
Number weight 1848/18 102.66
RUTHENIUM (Plate XVIII, 1):
14 bars of 134 atoms 1876
Atomic weight 102.23
Number weight 1876/18 104.22
RHODIUM (Plate XVII, 2):
14 bars of 136 atoms 1904
Atomic weight 105.74
Number weight 1904/18 105.77
PALLADIUM (XVIII, 3):
The third sub-group, osmium, iridium and platinum, is, of course, more
complicated in its composition, but its builders succeed in preserving the
bar form, gaining the necessary increase by a multiplication of contained
spheres within the ovoids. Osmium has one peculiarity: the ovoid marked _a_
(XVIII, 4) takes the place of axis in the upper half of the bar, and the
three ovoids, marked _b_, revolve round it. In the lower half, the four
ovoids, _c_, revolve round the central axis. In platinum, we have marked
two forms as platinum A and platinum B, the latter having two four-atomed
spheres (XVIII, 6 _b_) in the place of the two triplets marked a. It may
well be that what we have called platinum B is not a variety of platinum,
but a new element, the addition of two atoms in a bar being exactly that
which separates the other elements within each of the sub-groups. It will
be noticed that the four lower sections of the bars are identical in all
the members of this sub-group, each ovoid containing thirty atoms. The
upper ring of ovoids in iridium and platinum A are also identical, but for
the substitution, in platinum A, of a quartet for a triplet in the second
and third ovoids; their cones are identical, containing twenty-one atoms,
like those of silver and tin.
14 bars of 245 atoms 3430
Atomic weight 189.55
Number weight 3430/18 190.55
OSMIUM (Plate XVIII, 4):
14 bars of 247 atoms 3458
Atomic weight 191.11
Number weight 3458/18 192.11
IRIDIUM (Plate XVIII, 5):
14 bars of 249 atoms 3486
Atomic weight 193.66
Number weight 3486/18 193.34
PLATINUM A (Plate XVIII, 6 _a_):
14 bars of 251 atoms 3514
Atomic weight ------
Number weight 3514/18 195.22
PLATINUM B (Plate XVIII, 6 _b_):
V a.--THE SPIKE GROUPS.
I place within this group lithium, potassium, rubidium, fluorine, and
manganese, because of their similarity in internal composition. Manganese
has fourteen spikes, arranged as in the iron group, but radiating from a
central globe. Potassium has nine, rubidium has sixteen, in both cases
radiating from a central globe. Lithium (Plate IV, 2) and fluorine (Plate
IV, 3) are the two types which dominate the group, lithium supplying the
spike which is reproduced in all of them, and fluorine the "nitrogen
balloon" which appears in all save lithium. It will be seen that the
natural affinities are strongly marked. They are all monads and
paramagnetic; lithium, potassium and rubidium are positive, while fluorine
and manganese are negative. We seem thus to have a pair, corresponding with
each other, as in other cases, and the interperiodic group is left
interperiodic and congruous within itself.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.]
LITHIUM (Plate IV, 2 and Plate XIX, 1) is a striking and beautiful form,
with its upright cone, or spike, its eight radiating petals (_x_) at the
base of the cone, and the plate-like support in the centre of which is a
globe, on which the spike rests. The spike revolves swiftly on its axis,
carrying the petals with it; the plate revolves equally swiftly in the
opposite direction. Within the spike are two globes and a long ovoid; the
spheres within the globe revolve as a cross; within the ovoid are four
spheres containing atoms arranged on tetrahedra, and a central sphere with
an axis of three atoms surrounded by a spinning wheel of six.
LITHIUM: Spike of 63 atoms 63
8 petals of 6 atoms 48
Central globe of 16 atoms 16
----
Total 127
----
Atomic weight 6.98
Number weight 127/18 7.05
POTASSIUM (Plate XIX, 2) consists of nine radiating lithium spikes, but has
not petals; its central globe contains one hundred and thirty-four atoms,
consisting of the "nitrogen balloon," encircled by six four-atomed spheres.
POTASSIUM: 9 bars of 63 atoms 567
Central globe 134
----
Total 701
----
Atomic weight 38.94
Number weight 701/18 38.85
(The weight, as determined by Richards [_Nature_, July 18, 1907] is
39.114.)
RUBIDIUM: (Plate XIX, 3) adds an ovoid, containing three spheres--two
triplets and a sextet--to the lithium spike, of which it has sixteen, and
its central globe is composed of three "balloons."
RUBIDIUM: 16 spikes of 75 atoms 1200
Central globe 330
----
Total 1530
----
Atomic weight 84.85
Number weight 1530/18 85.00
The corresponding negative group consists only of fluorine and manganese,
so far as our investigations have gone.
FLUORINE (Plate IV, 3, and Plate XVII, 1) is a most peculiar looking object
like a projectile, and gives one the impression of being ready to shoot off
on the smallest provocation. The eight spikes, reversed funnels, coming to
a point, are probably responsible for this warlike appearance. The
remainder of the body is occupied by two "balloons."
FLUORINE: 8 spikes of 15 atoms 120
2 balloons 220
----
Total 340
----
Atomic weight 18.90
Number weight 340/18 18.88
MANGANESE (Plate XVII, 2) has fourteen spikes radiating from a central
"balloon."
MANGANESE: 14 spikes of 63 atoms 882
Central balloon 110
----
Total 992
----
Atomic weight 54.57
Number weight 992/18 55.11
* * * * *
IX.
We have now to consider the breaking up of the octahedral groups, and more
and more, as we proceed, do we find that the most complicated arrangements
are reducible to simple elements which are already familiar.
CARBON (Plate III, 5, and XV, 1).
[Illustration]
Carbon is the typical octahedron, and a clear understanding of this will
enable us to follow easily the constitution and disintegration of the
various members of these groups. Its appearance as a chemical atom is shown
on Plate III, and see XV, 1. On the proto level the chemical atom breaks up
into four segments, each consisting of a pair of funnels connected by a
single atom; this is the proto element which appears at the end of each arm
of the cross in titanium and zirconium. On the meta level the five
six-atomed "cigars" show two neutral combinations, and the truncated
"cigar" of five atoms is also neutral; the "leaves" yield two forms of
triplet, five different types being thus yielded by each pair of funnels,
exclusive of the linking atom. The hyper level has triplets, duads and
units.
TITANIUM (Plate III, 6, and XV, 2, 3).
[Illustration]
On the proto level, the cross breaks up completely, setting free the pairs
of funnels with the linking atom (_a_ and _b_), as in carbon, the four
bodies marked _c_, the twelve marked _d_, and the central globe marked e.
The latter breaks up again, setting free its five intersecting
cigar-bearing tetrahedra, which follow their usual course (see Occultum, p.
44). The eight-atomed body in the centre makes a ring of seven atoms round
a central one, like that in occultum (see p. 44, diagram B), from which it
only differs in having the central atom, and breaks up similarly, setting
the central atom free. The ovoid _c_ sets free its four contained globes,
and the ovoid _d_ sets free the three within it. Thus sixty-one proto
elements are yielded by titanium. On the meta level, _c_ (titanium 3)
breaks up into star-like and cruciform bodies; the component parts of these
are easily followed; on the hyper level, of the four forms of triplets one
behaves as in carbon, and the others are shown, _a_, _b_ and _f_; the
cruciform quintet yields a triplet and a duad, _c_ and _d_; the tetrahedra
yield two triplets _g_ and _h_, and two units; the septet, a triplet _k_
and a quartet _j_. On the meta level, the bodies from _d_ behave like their
equivalents in sodium, each _d_ shows two quartets and a sextet, breaking
up, on the hyper level, into four duads and two triads.
ZIRCONIUM (Plate XV, 2, 5).
Zirconium reproduces in its _c_ the four forms that we have already
followed in the corresponding _c_ of titanium, and as these are set free on
the proto level, and follow the same course on the meta and hyper levels,
we need not repeat them. The central globe of zirconium _c_ sets free its
nine contained bodies; eight of these are similar and are figured in the
diagram; it will be observed that the central body is the truncated "cigar"
of carbon; their behaviour on the meta and hyper levels is easily followed
there. The central sphere is also figured; the cigar follows its usual
course, and its companions unite into a sextet and an octet. The _d_ ovoid
liberates five bodies, four of which we have already seen in titanium, as
the crosses and sextet of sodium, and which are figured under titanium; the
four quartets within the larger globe also follow a sodium model, and are
given again.
SILICON (Plate XVI, 1).
[Illustration]
In silicon, the ovoids are set free from the funnels on the proto level,
and the truncated "cigar," playing the part of a leaf, is also liberated.
This, and the four "cigars," which escape from their ovoids, pass along
their usual course. The quintet and quartet remain together, and form a
nine-atomed body on the meta level, yielding a sextet and a triplet on the
hyper.
GERMANIUM (Plate XVI, 2, 4).
The central globe, with its two "cigar"-bearing tetrahedra, need not delay
us; the tetrahedra are set free and follow the occultum disintegration, and
the central four atoms is the sodium cross that we had in titanium. The
ovoids (XVI, 4) are liberated on the proto level, and the "cigar," as
usual, bursts its way through and goes along its accustomed path. The
others remain linked on the meta level, and break up into two triangles and
a quintet on the hyper.
TIN (Plate XVI, 3, 4).
Here we have only the spike to consider, as the funnels are the same as in
germanium, and the central globe is that of titanium, omitting the eight
atomed centre. The cone of the spike we have had in silver (see p. 729,
May), and it is set free on the proto level. The spike, as in zinc, becomes
a large sphere, with the single septet in the centre, the remaining six
bodies circling round it on differing planes. They break up as shown. (Tin
is Sn.)
IRON (Plate IV, I, and XVII, 3).
[Illustration]
We have already dealt with the affinities of this peculiar group, and we
shall see, in the disintegration, even more clearly, the close
relationships which exist according to the classification which we here
follow.
The fourteen bars of iron break asunder on the proto level, and each sets
free its contents--a cone and three ovoids, which as usual, become spheres.
The twenty-eight-atomed cone becomes a four-sided figure, and the ovoids
show crystalline contents. They break up, on the meta level as shown in the
diagram, and are all reduced to triplets and duads on the hyper level.
COBALT (Plate XVII, 4).
The ovoids in cobalt are identical with those of iron; the higher ovoids,
which replace the cone of iron, show persistently the crystalline forms so
noticeable throughout this group.
NICKEL (Plate XVII, 5).
The two additional atoms in a bar, which alone separate nickel from cobalt,
are seen in the upper sphere of the central ovoid.
RUTHENIUM (Plate XVIII, 1).
The lower ovoids in ruthenium are identical in composition, with those of
iron, cobalt and nickel and may be studied under Iron. The upper ones only
differ by the addition of a triplet.
RHODIUM (Plate XVIII, 2).
Rhodium has a septet, which is to be seen in the _c_ of titanium (see _k_
in the titanium diagram) and differs only in this from its group.
PALLADIUM (Plate XVIII, 3).
In palladium this septet appears as the upper sphere in every ovoid of the
upper ring.
OSMIUM (Plate XVIII, 4).
We have here no new constituents; the ovoids are set free on the proto
level and the contained globes on the meta, all being of familiar forms.
The cigars, as usual, break free on the proto level, and leave their ovoid
with only four contained spheres, which unite into two nine-atomed bodies
as in silicon (see above).
IRIDIUM (Plate XVIII, 5.)
The twenty-one-atomed cone of silver here reappears, and its proceedings
may be followed under that metal (see diagram, p. 729, May). The remaining
bodies call for no remark.
PLATINUM (Plate XVIII, 6).
Again the silver cone is with us. The remaining bodies are set free on the
proto level, and their contained spheres on the meta.
LITHIUM (Plate IV, 2, and XIX, 1).
[Illustration]
Here we have some new combinations, which recur persistently in its allies.
The bodies _a_, in Plate XIX, 1, are at the top and bottom of the ellipse;
they come to right and left of it in the proto state, and each makes a
twelve-atomed body on the meta level.
The five bodies within the ellipse, three monads and two sextets, show two
which we have had before: _d_, which behaves like the quintet and quartet
in silicon, after their junction, and _b_, which we have had in iron. The
two bodies _c_ are a variant of the square-based pyramid, one atom at the
apex, and two at each of the other angles. The globe, _e_, is a new form,
the four tetrahedra of the proto level making a single twelve-atomed one on
the meta. The body _a_ splits up into triplets on the hyper; _b_ and _d_
follow their iron and silicon models; _c_ yields four duads and a unit; _e_
breaks into four quartets.
POTASSIUM (Plate XIX, 2).
Potassium repeats the lithium spike; the central globe shows the "nitrogen
balloon," which we already know, and which is surrounded on the proto level
with six tetrahedra, which are set free on the meta and behave as in
cobalt. Hence we have nothing new.
RUBIDIUM (Plate XIX, 3).
Again the lithium spike, modified slightly by the introduction of an ovoid,
in place of the top sphere; the forms here are somewhat unusual, and the
triangles of the sextet revolve round each other on the meta level; all the
triads break up on the hyper level into duads and units.
FLUORINE (Plate IV, 3, and Plate XVII, 1).
The reversed funnels of fluorine split asunder on the proto level, and are
set free, the "balloons" also floating off independently. The funnels, as
usual, become spheres, and on the meta level set free their contained
bodies, three quartets and a triplet from each of the eight. The balloons
disintegrate in the usual way.
MANGANESE (Plate XVII, 2).
Manganese offers us nothing new, being composed of "lithium spikes" and
"nitrogen balloons."
* * * * *
X.
VI.--THE STAR GROUPS.
We have now reached the last of the groups as arranged on Sir William
Crookes' lemniscates, that forming the "neutral" column; it is headed by
helium, which is _sui generis_. The remainder are in the form of a flat
star (see Plate IV, 4), with a centre formed of five intersecting and
"cigar"-bearing tetrahedra, and six radiating arms. Ten of these have been
observed, five pairs in which the second member differs but slightly from
the first; they are: Neon, Meta-neon; Argon, Metargon; Krypton,
Meta-krypton; Xenon, Meta-xenon; Kalon, Meta-kalon; the last pair and the
meta forms are not yet discovered by chemists. These all show the presence
of a periodic law; taking an arm of the star in each of the five pairs, we
find the number of atoms to be as follows :--
40 99 224 363 489
47 106 231 370 496
It will be observed that the meta form in each case shows seven more atoms
than its fellow.
[Illustration: PLATE XX.]
HELIUM (Plate III, 5, and Plate XX, 1) shows two "cigar"-bearing
tetrahedra, and two hydrogen triangles, the tetrahedra revolving round an
egg-shaped central body, and the triangles spinning on their own axes while
performing a similar revolution. The whole has an attractively airy
appearance, as of a fairy element.
HELIUM: Two tetrahedra of 24 atoms 48
Two triangles of 9 atoms 18
Central egg 6
----
Total 72
----
Atomic weight 3.94
Number weight 72/18 4.00
NEON (Plate XX, 2 and 6) has six arms of the pattern shown in 2, radiating
from the central globe.
NEON: Six arms of 40 atoms 240
Central tetrahedra 120
----
Total 360
----
Atomic weight 19.90
Number weight 360/18 20.00
META-NEON (Plate XX, 3 and 6) differs from its comrade by the insertion of
an additional atom in each of the groups included in the second body within
its arm, and substituting a seven-atomed group for one of the triplets in
neon.
META-NEON: Six arms of 47 atoms 282
Central tetrahedra 120
----
Total 402
----
Atomic weight ----
Number weight 402/18 22.33
ARGON (Plate XX, 4, 6 and 7) shows within its arms the _b_ 63 which we met
in nitrogen, yttrium, vanadium and niobium, but not the "balloon," which we
shall find with it in krypton and its congeners.
ARGON: Six arms of 99 atoms 594
Central tetrahedra 120
----
Total 714
----
Atomic weight 39.60
Number weight 714/18 39.66
METARGON (Plate XX, 5, 6 and 7) again shows only an additional seven atoms
in each arm.
METARGON: Six arms of 106 atoms 636
Central tetrahedra 120
----
Total 756
----
Atomic weight ----
Number weight 756/18 42
[Illustration: PLATE XXI.]
KRYPTON (Plate XXI, 1 and 4, and Plate XX, 6 and 7) contains the nitrogen
"balloon," elongated by its juxtaposition to _b_ 63. The central tetrahedra
appear as usual.
KRYPTON: Six arms of 224 atoms 1344
Central tetrahedra 120
-----
Total 1464
-----
Atomic weight 81.20
Number weight 1464/18 81.33
META-KRYPTON differs only from krypton by the substitution of _z_ for _y_
in each arm of the star.
META-KRYPTON: Six arms of 231 atoms 1386
Central tetrahedra 120
-----
Total 1506
-----
Atomic weight -----
Number weight 1506/18 83.66
XENON (Plate XXI, 2 and 4, and Plate XX, 6 and 7) has a peculiarity shared
only by kalon, that _x_ and _y_ are asymmetrical, the centre of one having
three atoms and the centre of the other two. Is this done in order to
preserve the difference of seven from its comrade?
XENON: Six arms of 363 atoms 2178
Central tetrahedra 120
-----
Total 2298
-----
Atomic weight 127.10
Number weight 2298/18 127.66
META-XENON differs from xenon only by the substitution of two _z_'s for _x_
and _y_.
META-XENON: Six arms of 370 atoms 2220
Central tetrahedra 120
-----
Total 2340
-----
Atomic weight -----
Number weight 2340/18 130
KALON (Plate XXI, 3 and 4, and Plate XX, 6 and 7) has a curious cone,
possessing a kind of tail which we have not observed elsewhere; _x_ and _y_
show the same asymmetry as in xenon.
KALON: Six arms of 489 atoms 2934
Central tetrahedra 120
----
Total 3054
----
Atomic weight ----
Number weight 3054/18 169.66
META-KALON again substitutes two _z_'s for _x_ and _y_.
META-KALON: Six arms of 496 atoms 2976
Central tetrahedra 120
----
Total 3096
----
Atomic weight ----
Number weight 3096/18 172
Only a few atoms of kalon and meta-kalon have been found in the air of a
fair-sized room.
It does not seem worth while to break up these elements, for their
component parts are so familiar. The complicated groups--_a_ 110, _b_ 63
and _c_ 120--have all been fully dealt with in preceding pages.
* * * * *
There remains now only radium, of the elements which we have, so far,
examined, and that will be now described and will bring to an end this
series of observations. A piece of close and detailed work of this kind,
although necessarily imperfect, will have its value in the future, when
science along its own lines shall have confirmed these researches.
It will have been observed that our weights, obtained by counting, are
almost invariably slightly in excess of the orthodox ones: it is
interesting that in the latest report of the International Commission
(November 13, 1907), printed in the _Proceedings of the Chemical Society of
London_, Vol. XXIV, No. 33, and issued on January 25, 1908, the weight of
hydrogen is now taken at 1.008 instead of at 1. This would slightly raise
all the orthodox weights; thus aluminium rises from 26.91 to 27.1, antimony
from 119.34 to 120.2, and so on.
* * * * *
XI.
RADIUM.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII.]
Radium has the form of a tetrahedron, and it is in the tetrahedral groups
(see article IV) that we shall find its nearest congeners; calcium,
strontium, chromium, molybdenum resemble it most closely in general
internal arrangements, with additions from zinc and cadmium. Radium has a
complex central sphere (Plate XXII), extraordinarily vivid and living; the
whirling motion is so rapid that continued accurate observation is very
difficult; the sphere is more closely compacted than the centre-piece in
other elements, and is much larger in proportion to the funnels and spikes
than is the case with the elements above named; reference to Plate VIII
will show that in these the funnels are much larger than the centres,
whereas in radium the diameter of the sphere and the length of the funnel
or spike are about equal. Its heart consists of a globe containing seven
atoms, which assume on the proto level the prismatic form shown in cadmium,
magnesium and selenium. This globe is the centre of two crosses, the arms
of which show respectively three-atomed and two-atomed groups. Round this
sphere are arranged, as on radii, twenty-four segments, each containing
five bodies--four quintets and a septet--and six loose atoms, which float
horizontally across the mouth of the segment; the whole sphere has thus a
kind of surface of atoms. On the proto level these six atoms in each
segment gather together and form a "cigar." In the rush of the streams
presently to be described one of these atoms is occasionally torn away, but
is generally, if not always, replaced by the capture of another which is
flung into the vacated space.
Each of the four funnels opens, as usual, on one face of the tetrahedron,
and they resemble the funnels of strontium and molybdenum but contain three
pillars instead of four (Plate XXIII). They stand within the funnel as
though at the angles of a triangle, not side by side. The contained bodies,
though numerous, contain forms which are all familiar.
The spikes alternate with the funnels, and point to the angles of the
tetrahedron as in zinc and cadmium; each spike contains three "lithium
spikes" (see Plate XIX) with a ten-atomed cone or cap at the top, floating
above the three (Plate XXIV). The "petals" or "cigars" of lithium exist in
the central globe in the floating atoms, and the four-atomed groups which
form the lithium "plate" may be seen in the funnels, so that the whole of
lithium appears in radium.
So much for its composition. But a very peculiar result, so far unobserved
elsewhere, arises from the extraordinarily rapid whirling of the central
sphere. A kind of vortex is formed, and there is a constant and powerful
indraught through the funnels. By this, particles are drawn in from
without, and these are swept round with the sphere, their temperature
becoming much raised, and they are then violently shot out through the
spikes. It is these jets which occasionally sweep away an atom from the
surface of the sphere. These "particles" may be atoms, or they may be
bodies from any of the etheric levels; in some cases these bodies break up
and form new combinations. In fact lithium seems like a kind of vortex of
creative activity, drawing in, breaking up, recombining, shooting forth--a
most extraordinary element.
RADIUM: 4 funnels of 618 atoms 2472
4 spikes of 199 atoms 796
Central sphere 819
----
Total 4087
----
Atomic weight ----
Number weight 4087/18 227.05
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.]
* * * * *
APPENDIX.
THE ÆTHER OF SPACE.
Much discussion has taken place, especially between physicists and
chemists, over the nature of the substances with which all space must,
according to scientific hypothesis, be filled. One side contends that it is
infinitely thinner than the thinnest gas, absolutely frictionless and
without weight; the other asserts that it is denser than the densest solid.
In this substance the ultimate atoms of matter are thought to float, like
motes in a sunbeam, and light, heat and electricity are supposed to be its
vibrations.
Theosophical investigators, using methods not at the disposal of physical
science, have found that this hypothesis includes under one head two
entirely different and widely separated sets of phenomena. They have been
able to deal with states of matter higher than the gaseous and have
observed that it is by means of vibrations of this finer matter that light,
heat and electricity manifest themselves to us. Seeing that matter in these
higher states thus performs the functions attributed to the ether of
science, they have (perhaps unadvisedly) called these states etheric, and
have thus left themselves without a convenient name for that substance
which fulfils the other part of the scientific requirements.
Let us for the moment name this substance _koilon_, since it fills what we
are in the habit of calling empty space. What mûlaprakrti, or
"mother-matter," is to the inconceivable totality of universes, koilon is
to our particular universe--not to our solar system merely but to the vast
unit which includes all visible suns. Between koilon and mûlaprakrti there
must be various stages, but we have at present no direct means of
estimating their number or of knowing anything whatever about them.
In an ancient occult treatise, however, we read of a "colorless spiritual
fluid" "which exists everywhere and forms the first foundation on which our
solar system is built. Outside the latter, it is found in its pristine
purity only between the stars [suns] of the universe.... As its substance
is of a different kind from that known on earth, the inhabitants of the
latter, seeing _through it_, believe, in their illusion and ignorance, that
it is empty space. There is not one finger's breadth of void space in the
whole boundless universe."[21] "The mother-substance" is said, in this
treatise, to produce this æther of space as its seventh grade of density,
and all objective suns are said to have this for their "substance."
To any power of sight which we can bring to bear upon it, this koilon
appears to be homogeneous, though it is probably nothing of the kind, since
homogeneity can belong to the mother-substance alone. It is out of all
proportion denser than any other substance known to us, infinitely
denser--if we may be pardoned the expression; so much denser that it seems
to belong to another type, or order, of density. But now comes the
startling part of the investigation: we might expect matter to be a
densification of this koilon; it is nothing of the kind. Matter is not
koilon, but _the absence of koilon_, and at first sight, matter and space
appear to have changed places, and emptiness has become solidity, solidity
has become emptiness.
To help us to understand this clearly let us examine the ultimate atom of
the physical plane (see pp. 21-23). It is composed of ten rings or wires,
which lie side by side, but never touch one another. If one of these wires
be taken away from the atom, and be, as it were, untwisted from its
peculiar spiral shape and laid out on a flat surface, it will be seen that
it is a complete circle--a tightly twisted endless coil. This coil is
itself a spiral containing 1680 turns; it can be unwound, and it will then
make a much larger circle. This process of unwinding may be again
performed, and a still bigger circle obtained, and this can be repeated
till the seven sets of spirillæ are all unwound, and we have a huge circle
of the tiniest imaginable dots, like pearls threaded on an invisible
string. These dots are so inconceivably small that many millions of them
are needed to make one ultimate physical atom, and while the exact number
is not readily ascertainable, several different lines of calculation agree
in indicating it as closely approximate to the almost inconceivable total
of fourteen thousand millions. Where figures are so huge, direct counting
is obviously impossible, but fortunately the different parts of the atom
are sufficiently alike to enable us to make an estimate in which the margin
of error is not likely to be very great. The atom consists of ten wires,
which divide themselves naturally into two groups--the three which are
thicker and more prominent, and the seven thinner ones which correspond to
the colors and planets. These latter appear to be identical in constitution
though the forces flowing through them must differ, since each responds
most readily to its own special set of vibrations. By actual counting it
has been discovered that the numbers of coils or spirillæ of the first
order in each wire is 1680; and the proportion of the different orders of
spirillæ to one another is equal in all cases that have been examined, and
correspond with the number of dots in the ultimate spirillæ of the lowest
order. The ordinary sevenfold rule works quite accurately with the thinner
coils, but there is a very curious variation with regard to the set of
three. As may be seen from the drawings, these are obviously thicker and
more prominent, and this increase of size is produced by an augmentation
(so slight as to be barely perceptible) in the proportion to one another of
the different orders of spirillæ and in the number of dots in the lowest.
This augmentation, amounting at present to not more than .00571428 of the
whole of each case, suggests the unexpected possibility that this portion
of the atom may be somehow actually undergoing a change--may in fact be in
process of growth, as there is reason to suppose that these three thicker
spirals originally resembled the others.
Since observation shows us that each physical atom is represented by
forty-nine astral atoms, each astral atom by forty-nine mental atoms, and
each mental atom by forty-nine of those on the buddhic plane, we have here
evidently several terms of a regular progressive series, and the natural
presumption is that the series continues where we are no longer able to
observe it. Further probability is lent to this assumption by the
remarkable fact that--if we assume one dot to be what corresponds to an
atom on the seventh or highest of our planes (as is suggested in _The
Ancient Wisdom_, p. 42) and then suppose the law of multiplication to begin
its operation, so that 49 dots shall form the atom of the next or sixth
plane, 2401 that of the fifth, and so on--we find that the number indicated
for the physical atom (496) corresponds almost exactly with the calculation
based upon the actual counting of the coils. Indeed, it seems probable that
but for the slight growth of the three thicker wires of the atom the
correspondence would have been perfect.
It must be noted that a physical atom cannot be directly broken up into
astral atoms. If the unit of force which whirls those millions of dots into
the complicated shape of a physical atom be pressed back by an effort of
will over the threshold of the astral plane, the atom disappears instantly,
for the dots are released. But the same unit of force, working now upon a
higher level, expresses itself not through one astral atom, but through a
group of 49. If the process of pressing back the unit of force is repeated,
so that it energises upon the mental plane, we find the group there
enlarged to the number of 2401 of those higher atoms. Upon the buddhic
plane the number of atoms formed by the same amount of force is very much
greater still--probably the cube of 49 instead of the square, though they
have not been actually counted. Therefore one physical atom is not
_composed of_ forty-nine astral or 2401 mental atoms, but _corresponds_ to
them, in the sense that the force which manifests through it would show
itself on those higher planes by energising respectively those numbers of
atoms.
The dots, or beads, seem to be the constituents of all matter of which we,
at present, know anything; astral, mental and buddhic atoms are built of
them, so we may fairly regard them as fundamental units, the basis of
matter.
These units are all alike, spherical and absolutely simple in construction.
Though they are the basis of all matter, they are not themselves matter;
they are not blocks but bubbles. They do not resemble bubbles floating in
the air, which consist of a thin film of water separating the air within
them from the air outside, so that the film has both an outer and an inner
surface. Their analogy is rather with the bubbles that we see rising in
water, before they reach the surface, bubbles which may be said to have
only one surface--that of the water which is pushed back by the contained
air. Just as such bubbles are not water, but are precisely the spots from
which water is absent, so these units are not koilon, but the absence of
koilon--the only spots where it is not--specks of nothingness floating in
it, so to speak, for the interior of these space-bubbles is an absolute
void to the highest power of vision that we can turn upon them.
That is the startling, well-nigh incredible, fact. Matter is nothingness,
the space obtained by pressing back an infinitely dense substance; Fohat
"digs holes in space" of a verity, and the holes are the airy
nothingnesses, the bubbles, of which "solid" universes are built.
What are they, then, these bubbles, or rather, what is their content, the
force which can blow bubbles in a substance of infinite density? The
ancients called that force "the Breath," a graphic symbol, which seems to
imply that they who used it had seen the kosmic process, had seen the LOGOS
when He breathed into the "waters of space," and made the bubbles which
build universes. Scientists may call this "Force" by what names they
will--names are nothing; to us, Theosophists, it is the Breath of the
LOGOS, we know not whether of the LOGOS of this solar system or of a yet
mightier Being; the latter would seem the more likely, since in the
above-quoted occult treatise all visible suns are said to have this as
their substance.
The Breath of the LOGOS, then, is the force which fills these spaces; His
the force which holds them open against the tremendous pressure of the
koilon; they are full of His Life, of Himself, and everything we call
matter, on however high or low a plane, is instinct with divinity; these
units of force, of life, the bricks with which He builds His universe, are
His very life scattered through space; truly is it written: "I established
this universe with a portion of myself." And when He draws in His breath,
the waters of space will close in again, and the universe will have
disappeared. It is only a breath.
The outbreathing which makes these bubbles is quite distinct from, and long
antecedent to, the three outpourings, or Life-Waves, so familiar to the
theosophical student. The first Life-Wave catches up these bubbles, and
whirls them into the various arrangements which we call the atoms of the
several planes, and aggregates them into the molecules, and on the physical
plane into the chemical elements. The worlds are built out of these voids,
these emptinesses, which seem to us "nothing" but are divine force. It is
matter made from the privation of matter. How true were H.P.B.'s statements
in "The Secret Doctrine": "Matter is nothing but an aggregation of atomic
forces" (iii, 398); "Buddha taught that the primitive substance is eternal
and unchangeable. Its vehicle is the pure luminous æther, the boundless
infinite space, not a void, resulting from the absence of all forms, but on
the contrary, the foundation of all forms" (iii, 402).
How vividly, how unmistakably this knowledge brings home to us the great
doctrine of Mâyâ, the transitoriness and unreality of earthly things, the
utterly deceptive nature of appearances! When the candidate for initiation
sees (not merely believes, remember, but actually _sees_) that what has
always before seemed to him empty space is in reality a solid mass of
inconceivable density, and that the matter which has appeared to be the one
tangible and certain basis of things is not only by comparison tenuous as
gossamer (the "web" spun by "Father-Mother"), but is actually composed of
emptiness and nothingness--is itself the very negation of matter--then for
the first time he thoroughly appreciates the valuelessness of the physical
senses as guides to the truth. Yet even more clearly still stands out the
glorious certainty of the immanence of the Divine; not only is everything
ensouled by the LOGOS, but even its visible manifestation is literally part
of Him, is built of His very substance, so that Matter as well as Spirit
becomes sacred to the student who really understands.
The koilon in which all these bubbles are formed undoubtedly represents a
part, and perhaps the principal part, of what science describes as the
luminiferous æther. Whether it is actually the bearer of the vibrations of
light and heat through interplanetary space is as yet undetermined. It is
certain that these vibrations impinge upon and are perceptible to our
bodily senses only through the etheric matter of the physical plane. But
this by no means proves that they are conveyed through space in the same
manner, for we know very little of the extent to which the physical etheric
matter exists in interplanetary and interstellar space, though the
examination of meteoric matter and kosmic dust shows that at least some of
it is scattered there.
The scientific theory is that the æther has some quality which enables it
to transmit at a certain definite velocity transverse waves of all lengths
and intensities--that velocity being what is commonly called the speed of
light, 190,000 miles per second. Quite probably this may be true of koilon,
and if so it must also be capable of communicating those waves to bubbles
or aggregations of bubbles, and before the light can reach our eyes there
must be a downward transference from plane to plane similar to that taking
place when a thought awakens emotion or causes action.
In a recent pamphlet on "The Density of Æther," Sir Oliver Lodge remarks:--
"Just as the ratio of mass to volume is small in the case of a solar system
or a nebula or a cobweb, I have been driven to think that the observed
mechanical density of matter is probably an excessively small fraction of
the total density of the substance or æther contained in the space which it
thus partially occupies--the substance of which it may hypothetically be
held to be composed.
"Thus, for instance, consider a mass of platinum, and assume that its atoms
are composed of electrons, or of some structures not wholly dissimilar: the
space which these bodies actually fill, as compared with the whole space
which in a sense they 'occupy,' is comparable to one ten-millionth of the
whole, even inside each atom; and the fraction is still smaller if it
refers to the visible mass. So that a kind of minimum estimate of ætherial
density, on this basis, would be something like ten thousand million times
that of platinum."
And further on he adds that this density may well turn out to be fifty
thousand million times that of platinum. "The densest matter known," he
says, "is trivial and gossamer-like compared with the unmodified æther in
the same space."
Incredible as this seems to our ordinary ideas, it is undoubtedly an
understatement rather than an exaggeration of the true proportion as
observed in the case of koilon. We shall understand how this can be so if
we remember that koilon seems absolutely homogeneous and solid even when
examined by a power of magnification which makes physical atoms appear in
size and arrangement like cottages scattered over a lonely moor, and when
we further add to this the recollection that the bubbles of which these
atoms in turn are composed are themselves what may be not inaptly called
fragments of nothingness.
In the same pamphlet Sir Oliver Lodge makes a very striking estimate of the
intrinsic energy of the æther. He says: "The total output of a
million-kilowatt power station for thirty million years exists permanently,
and at present inaccessibly in every cubic millimetre of space." Here again
he is probably underestimating the stupendous truth.
It may naturally be asked how, if all this be so, it is possible that we
can move about freely in a solid ten thousand million times denser, as Sir
Oliver Lodge says, than platinum. The obvious answer is that, where
densities differ sufficiently, they can move through each other with
perfect freedom; water or air can pass through cloth; air can pass through
water; an astral form passes unconsciously through a physical wall, or
through an ordinary human body; many of us have seen an astral form walk
through a physical, neither being conscious of the passage; it does not
matter whether we say that a ghost has passed through a wall, or a wall has
passed through a ghost. A gnome passes freely through a rock, and walks
about within the earth, as comfortably as we walk about in the air. A
deeper answer is that consciousness can recognize only consciousness, that
since we are of the nature of the LOGOS we can sense only those things
which are also of His nature. These bubbles are His essence, His life, and,
therefore, we, who also are part of Him, can see the matter which is built
of his substance, for all forms are but manifestations of Him. The koilon
is to us non-manifestation, because we have not unfolded powers which
enable us to cognise it, and it may be the manifestation of a loftier order
of LOGOI, utterly beyond our ken.
As none of our investigators can raise his consciousness to the highest
plane of our universe, the âdi-tattva plane, it may be of interest to
explain how it is possible for them to see what may very probably be the
atom of that plane. That this may be understood it is essential to remember
that the power of magnification by means of which these experiments are
conducted is quite apart from the faculty of functioning upon one or other
of the planes. The latter is the result of a slow and gradual unfoldment of
the Self, while the former is merely a special development of one of the
many powers latent in man. All the planes are round us here, just as much
as any other point in space, and if a man sharpens his sight until he can
see their tiniest atoms he can make a study of them, even though he may as
yet be far from the level necessary to enable him to understand and
function upon the higher planes as a whole, or to come into touch with the
glorious Intelligences who gather those atoms into vehicles for Themselves.
A partial analogy may be found in the position of the astronomer with
regard to the stellar universe, or let us say the Milky Way. He can observe
its constituent parts and learn a good deal about them along various lines,
but it is absolutely impossible for him to see it as a whole from outside,
or to form any certain conception of its true shape, and to know what it
really is. Suppose that the universe is, as many of the ancients thought,
some inconceivably vast Being, it is utterly impossible for us, here in the
midst of it, to know what that Being is or is doing, for that would mean
raising ourselves to a height comparable with His; but we may make
extensive and detailed examination of such particles of His body as happen
to be within our reach, for that means only the patient use of powers and
machinery already at our command.
Let it not be supposed that, in thus unfolding a little more of the wonders
of Divine Truth by pushing our investigations to the very farthest point at
present possible to us, we in any way alter or modify all that has been
written in theosophical books of the shape and constitution of the physical
atom, and of the wonderful and orderly arrangements by which it is grouped
into the various chemical molecules; all this remains entirely unaffected.
Nor is any change introduced as regards the three outpourings from the
LOGOS, and the marvellous facility with which the matter of the various
planes is by them moulded into forms for the service of the evolving life.
But if we wish to have a right view of the realities underlying
manifestation in this universe, we must to a considerable extent reverse
the ordinary conception as to what this matter essentially is. Instead of
thinking of its ultimate constituents as solid specks floating in a void,
we must realise that it is the apparent void itself which is solid, and
that the specks are but bubbles on it. That fact once grasped, all the rest
remains as before. The relative position of what we have hitherto called
matter and force is still for us the same as ever; it is only that, on
closer examination, both of these conceptions prove to be variants of
force, the one ensouling combinations of the other, and the real "matter,"
koilon, is seen to be something which has hitherto been altogether outside
our scheme of thought.
In view of this marvellous distribution of Himself in "space," the familiar
concept of the "sacrifice of the LOGOS" takes on a new depth and splendour;
this is His "dying in matter," His "perpetual sacrifice," and it may be the
very glory of the LOGOS that He can sacrifice Himself to the uttermost by
thus permeating and making Himself one with that portion of koilon which He
chooses as the field of His universe.
What koilon is, what its origin, whether it is itself changed by the Divine
Breath which is poured into it--does "Dark Space" thus become "Bright
Space" at the beginning of a manifestation?--these are questions to which
we cannot at present even indicate answers. Perchance an intelligent study
of the great Scriptures of the world may yield replies.
* * * * *
NOTES
[1] See footnote in next Chapter.
[2] The drawings of the elements were done by two Theosophical artists,
Herr Hecker and Mrs. Kirby, whom we sincerely thank; the diagrams, showing
the details of the construction of each "element," we owe to the most
painstaking labour of Mr. Jinarâjadâsa, without whose aid it would have
been impossible for us to have presented clearly and definitely the
complicated arrangements by which the chemical elements are built up. We
have also to thank him for a number of most useful notes, implying much
careful research, which are incorporated in the present series, and without
which we could not have written these papers.
[3] The atomic sub-plane.
[4] The astral plane.
[5] Known to Theosophists as Fohat, the force of which all the physical
plane forces--electricities--are differentiations.
[6] When Fohat "digs holes in space."
[7] The first life-wave, the work of the third Logos.
[8] A mâyâ, truly.
[9] By a certain action of the will, known to students, it is possible to
make such a space by pressing back and walling off the matter of space.
[10] Again the astral world.
[11] Each spirilla is animated by the life-force of a plane, and four are
at present normally active, one for each round. Their activity in an
individual may be prematurely forced by yoga practice.
[12] "The ten numbers of the sun. These are called Dis--in reality
space--the forces spread in space, three of which are contained in the
Sun's Atman, or seventh principle, and seven are the rays shot out by the
Sun." The atom is a sun in miniature in its own universe of the
inconceivably minute. Each of the seven whorls is connected with one of the
Planetary Logoi, so that each Planetary Logos has a direct influence
playing on the very matter of which all things are constructed. It may be
supposed that the three, conveying electricity, a differentiation of Fohat,
are related to the Solar Logoi.
[13] The action of electricity opens up ground of large extent, and cannot
be dealt with here. Does it act on the atoms themselves, or on molecules,
or sometimes on one and sometimes on the other? In soft iron, for instance,
are the internal arrangements of the chemical atom forcibly distorted, and
do they elastically return to their original relations when released? and
in steel is the distortion permanent? In all the diagrams the heart-shaped
body, exaggerated to show the depression caused by the inflow and the point
caused by the outflow, is a single atom.
[14] These sub-planes are familiar to the Theosophist as gaseous, etheric,
super-etheric, sub-atomic, atomic; or as Gas, Ether 4, Ether 3, Ether 2,
Ether 1.
[15] It must be remembered that the diagrams represent three-dimensional
objects, and the atoms are not all on a plane, necessarily.
[16] That is, the surrounding magnetic fields strike on each other.
[17] The fifth member of this group was not sought for.
[18] This, with references which appear later (pp. 32, 33, 50, etc.),
relates to articles which appeared in the _Theosophist_, 1908.
[19] Since writing the above I have noticed, in the _London, Edinburgh and
Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science_, conducted by Dr.
John Joly and Mr. William Francis, in an article entitled "Evolution and
Devolution of the Elements," the statement that it is probable that in "the
nebulous state of matter there are four substances, the first two being
unknown upon earth, the third being hydrogen and the fourth ... helium. It
also seems probable that ... hydrogen, the two unknown elements, and helium
are the four original elements from which all the other elements form. To
distinguish them from the others we will term them protons." This is
suggestive as regards hydrogen, but does not help us with regard to oxygen
and nitrogen.
[20] Theosophists call them Nature-Spirits, and often use the mediæval term
Elementals. Beings concerned with the elements truly are they, even with
chemical elements.
[21] Quoted in "The Secret Doctrine." H.P. Blavatsky, i, 309.
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