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, s
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