SIZE OF THE ATOM.
As to the size of the atom, Loschmidt, of Vienna, had come to the conclusion that the diameter of an atom of oxygen or nitrogen was the ten-millionth part of a centimeter. With the highest known magnifying power we could distinguish the forty-thousandth part of a centimeter. If, now, we imagine a cubic box each of whose sides had this length, such a box, when filled with air, would contain from sixty to a hundred millions of atoms of oxygen and nitrogen. As to the indivisibility of the atom, the space of fifty years had completely changed the face of the inquiry. Not only had the number of distinct, well-established elementary bodies increased from fifty-three in 1837 to seventy in 1887, but the properties of these elements had been studied, and were now known with a degree of precision then undreamt of. Had the atoms of our present elements been made to yield? To this a negative answer must undoubtedly be given, for even the highest of terrestrial temperatures, that of the electric spark, had failed to shake any one of these atoms in two. This was shown by the results with which spectrum analysis had enriched our knowledge. Terrestrial analysis had failed to furnish favorable evidence; and, turning to the chemistry of the stars, the spectra of the white, which were presumably the hottest stars, furnished no direct evidence that a decomposition of any terrestrial atom had taken place; indeed, we learned that the hydrogen atom, as we know it here, can endure unscathed the inconceivably fierce temperature of stars presumably many times more fervent than our sun, as Sirius and Vega. It was therefore no matter for surprise if the earth-bound chemist should for the present continue to regard the elements as the unalterable foundation stones upon which his science is based.