sarily 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,