The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-12-12
NOTHING BUT HYDROGEN.
A Remarkable Discovery Announced BY
Mr.. Norman Lockyer.

AVA AA1ANV ~ i - = D1SOoASAvs
A Remarkable Discovery Announced BY
Mr.. Norman L0ckyer.
Prom the London telegraph.
By the announcement which Mr.. Nor
man Lockyer has just made to the Paris
Academy Of Sciences, to the effect that he
believes he has succeeded in realizing Far
aday's famous prophecy with regard to re-
ducing the so-called chemical elements to
alr, the prospect of another grand discov-
cry is added to the series of extraordinary
facts which have marked the scientific an
nails OF the present year. NJ. Dumas, the
venerable and accomplished French chem
ist, was the medium through whom Mr..
Lockyer conveyed these startling tidings.
The go odd elements, at which according
to the schoolbooks now In use. all terres-
trial matter is composed, are In reality, 1t
is said, not elementary, but compound
bodies. Science has been deceiving itself
with mere Protean combinations Of on
arch substance. Instead of 60 or 20 elo
ments, the number may be even less
than the traditional four-earth, air, fire
and water-wbich held so long a sway.
from the Aristotelian period until the days
of Robert Boyle. In making the commu-
nication to the Paris Academy. N. Dumas
| added that the conclusion reached by Mr.
Lockyar was the result Of three years as
siduous research. Conscious Of its extra
ordinary character and of the entirely new
aspect which the discovery will give to
chemical science. Mr.. Lockyer states that
he will send photographs and other de-
tails, which the Academy will rightly
look for with suspended belief. In the
meanwhile. our distinguished sdrdnt has
no hesitation in publicly disclosing the
specific character of his discovery, which
has been accomplished by the use of that
most potent and magical Of modern in
struments of analysis, the spectroscope.
The honor Of achieving prodigiou:
analytical success, which, if verified, must
ever be memorable in the history of mole
cular physics, has for some years past been
an object of strenuous rivalry among a
few Of our leading scientific workers. The
eventual dissertation of the so called ell
ements was confidently contemplated by
Faraday nearly 30 years ago, and it is moi
too much to say that the expectations en-
tertained by that eminent man gave a
stimulus for work in the laboratory
which has never been lost by those
who were privileged to be learners
or felsow-laborers with him. Since Fara-
days time, the whole question Of the
physical constitution Of the universe, and
especially the particular manner in which
creative power may have gradually slab.
Grated the present eosmIcal order OF
things, has been Investigated with zest,
and it may be added, with facilities toi
discovery, which have lent greatly in.
creased interest and importance to inquir.
les into the elementary and primal form:
of matter The apparently well ground
ed belief that the heavens afford to the
view Of the astronomer the process o.
matchmaking in its various stage
has done much of late years to encourag,
the particular branch Of research which
now seems to be yielding such extraordin
ary and valuable results. Mr.. Lockyel
believes that, in spite of the multiform as
poets of the world in which we live, there
! is but one form of matter which Is truly
elementary. The primal element Is pre-
scented to us in the shape OF hydrogen
1t is not little remarkable that the ma
ture of hydrogen should have been ques
ton to which the leading French chemists
have recently been devoting their ener
gies. 1t is now well known. thanks to NJ
Picket and his French colleagues, thai
hydrogen, in its gaseous form. can be. and
has been, reduced to a liquid condition
Mr.. Dockyer himself has arrived, by
means of the spectroscope, at the conclu
sion that hydrogen can no longer be re
garded as simple element. Further, h
believes he has proved that hydrogen II
the one body of which the various metal,
and earths that have hitherto constituted
the chemists catalogue of elements arr
composed. So novel and striking an in
terpetation Of ali the phenomena of ami
mate and iDanimate nature, in all that We
can see in the starry depths around us, a
well as in our own globe, is difficult al
first sight to entertain. That the sub
stance we have heretofore known as SIN
gle unit in the great cosmical laboratory
should be endowed with such Prote;in ca
pacities of form, is conception which Mt
terly eclipses all that poetry or mythology
has ever inspired, and the world becomes
infinitely more wonderful 10y such revela
tons as now seem to brought within oul
grasp.