The Electricity of Atoms.

Otago Witness, Issue 1555, 27 August 1881, Page 28

The Electricity of Atoms.

The moat novel conclusion of Professor Helmholz, in his recent Faraday lecturej is to the effect that the atom of every chemical element is always united with a definite unvarying quantity of eleotrlolty. This quantity stands in close connection with the combining power of the atom which modern chemistry has termed quaotivaleDce. For if the amount of electricity belonging to the monad atom be taken as the unit, then that of the dyad is two, that of the triad three, and so on. ' If,' says Professor Helmholz, *we conclude from the facts that every unit of affinity of every atom is charged always with one equivalent, either of positive or negative electricity, they can form compounds, being electrically neutral, only if everyunit charged positively unite undf r the influence „of a mighty eleotrlc attraction with another unit charged negatively, you will see that this ought to produce oompounds in whioh every unit of affinity of every atom is connected with one — and only with one — other unit of another atom. This is, indeed, the modern chemical theory of quantivalence, comprising all the saturated compounds.'