Now each atom is a storehouse of energy, representing the force primitively applied to reduce some thousands of free electrons to the bondage of a harmoniously working system. Its disruption is accompanied by the dissipation of the energy previously accumulated in it; and that atomic systems are not calculated for indefinite endurance is one of the most surprising of modern discoveries. The secret of their original construction is, none the less, impenetrable. That they are composed of protyle—that their clustering members are corpuscles moving under strong mechanical control—is more than probable. And the law of order adumbrated by what are called the 'periodic' relations of the chemical elements shows that their concourse was very far from being fortuitous. But beyond this point there is no holding-ground for distinct thought. We are ignorant, too, whether the process of building matter out of protyle is at present going on, or was completed once for all in the abysmal fore-time, decay being now definitive. Nor is it likely that we shall ever succeed in capturing with recognition a brand-new atom freshly minted for cosmical circulation.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] First introduced by Basilius Valentinus. See Fowler's edition of the Novum Organum, p. 576, note.
[53] Thus recurring, as Mr. Fowler remarked (loc. cit.), to Geber's earlier view.
[54] Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xlvi., p. 426.
[55] Crookes, Philosophical Transactions, vol. clxx., p. 163.
[56] J. J. Thomson, The Discharge of Electricity through Gases, p. 195; Philosophical Magazine, vol. xliv., p. 311.
[57] Science, June 26, 1903.
[58] Proceedings of the Chemical Society, March 2, 1888.
[59] Times, March 30, 1888.