. This analogy offers another way of representing the present theory—a way more similar to that used in my former paper[10]. Considering, however, the widely different assumptions underlying the relation (11) and Planck’s relation, it may seem more adequate not to seek the basis of our considerations in the formal analogy in question, but directly in the principal condition (1) and in the laws of the line-spectra.
In dealing with the more complicated structure of the spectra of other elements, we must assume that the atoms of such elements possess several different series of stationary states. This complexity of the system of stationary states, compared with that of the hydrogen atom, might naturally be anticipated from the greater number of electrons in the heavier atoms, which render possible several different types of configurations of the particles.
According to (1), (2), and (3) the energy of the
th state in the
th series is, omitting the arbitrary constant, given by
The present theory is not sufficiently developed to account in detail for the expression (13). However, a simple interpretation may be obtained of the fact that in every series
