Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-12-08
Is THERE NOTHING BUT HYDR0GENl
A Remarkable Discovery Announced
by IEr. Norman LOckyer.

London Telegrdph: "By the announce
ment which Mr.. Norman Lockyer has just
made to the Paris academy of science, to the
effect that he believes he has succeeded IN re-
alizing Faraday's famous prophecy with re-
gard to reducing the so-called chemical ele-
ments to air, the prospect OF another grand
discovery is added to the series OF extraor-
binary facts winch have marked the scientific
annals of the present year. 81. Dumas, the
venerable aud accomplished French chemist,
was the medium through which Mr.. Lockyer
conveyed these startling tdiugs. The sixty
odd clements, OF which, according TO the
school books now In use, all terrestrial mat
ter is com posed, are in reality, 1t IS sand, not
elementary but compound bodies. Science
has been deceiying itself with mere protean
combinations OF one arch-suostance. Instead
of sixty or seventy elements, the number
may be even less than the traditional four
earth, air, FIRE and water-which held so long
a sway, from the Aristotelian perld until the
DAYS of Robert Boyle. In making the COM
muuIcation to the Paris academy, NJ. Dumas
added that the conclusion reached by Mr..
Lockyer was the result Of three years as
siduous research. Conscious OF It's extraordI-
nary character, and of the entirely new as
pect which the discovery will give to
chemical science, Mr.. Lockyer states that he
will send photographs and other details,
which the academy will rightly look for with
suspended belief. Ia the meanwhile our dis
tinguished savant has no hesitation IN public
Nv disclosing the specific character OF his dis
covery, which has been accomplished by the
use Of that most potent and magical OF mod
err instruments of analysis, the speetrosc0pe-
The honor of achieving prodlglous analyu-
cal success, which, if verified, must ever be
memorable IN the history of molecular phys
les, has for some years past been an otJect OF
strenuous rivalry among few OF cur leading
scientific workers. The eventual dissertation
of the so-called elements was confidently con-
tempiated by Faraday nearly thirty years ago,
and 1t Is not too much to say that the expec-
tations entertained by that eminent man gave
a stimulus for work IN the laboratory which
has never been lost by those who were privI-
| legged to be learners or fellow-laborers with
| HIM. Since Faraday's time the whole ques-
| ton of the physical constitution of the uni
verse, and especially the particular manner
| In which creative power may have grad
ually elaborated the present cosmlcal or
der Of things, has been investigated with
| a zest and, it may be added, with facli-
] tiles for discovery, which have lent a
greatly increased interest and importance to
inquiries into the elementary and primal forms
ofnatter. Theappareutly we'll grounded be-
| lief that the heavens afford to the view OF the
astronomer the process of matchmaking IN
its various stages, has done much of late years
| to encourage the particular branch OF research
| which now seems to be yielding such extraor-
| binary and valuable results. MIR. Lockyer
believes that, IL spite of the multform aspects
| of the world in which we live, there is but
/ one form of matter which is truly elementary
! The primal element is presented to US IN the
shape of hydrogen. 1t is not little remark
able that the nature of hydrogen should have
| been question to which the leading French
chemists have recently been devoting
their energies. 1t is now we'll known, thanks
to NJ Pickett and his French colleagues, that
hydrogen, In its gaseous form, can be-
aud has been, reduced to liquid condition
| Mr.. Lockyer himself has arrived, by means
of the speetroscope, at the conclusion thai
hydrogen can no longer be regarded as a
simple element, Further, he believes he ha;
proved that hydrogen is the one body o.
which the various metals and earths that
have hitherto constituted the chemists cata
logue of slr-sants are composed. So move
and ssssgssE ~ Interpretation of all the phe
nsEaenA 81 nS7mate and insninate nature, O
| all $500 49, can see In the starry depth:
t.~=->. 80, as well as on our globe, is difficult
at first sight to entertain. That the sub
stance ssc -s-e heretofore known as a single
unit la Tag Ernat cosmIcal laboratory should
be euGOwe4 nth such protean capacities o
form, 10 q conception which utterly eclipsei
all that poetry or mythology has ever in
spired, and the world becomes infinitely
more wonderful by such revelations as nov
seem to be brought within our grasp"