Intra-atomic Charge and the Structure of the Atom

Abstract

I AM very grateful to Mr. Soddy (NATURE, December 4, p. 399) that in accepting in principle the hypothesis that the intra-atomic charge of an element is determined by its place in the periodic table, he directed attention to the possible uncertainty of the absolute values of intra-atomic charge and of the number of intra-atomic electrons. Surely the absolute values depend on the number of rare-earth elements; but if to the twelve elements of this series, the international table contains between cerium and tantalum, the new elements (at least four) discovered by Auer von Welsbach in thulium (Monatshefte für Chemie 32, Mai, S. 373), further keltium, discovered by Urbain (Comptes rendus d. l'Acad. des Sciences, 152, 141–3), and an unknown one for the open place between praseodymium and samarium be added, this long period, too, becomes regular. Moreover, if only twelve instead of eighteen elements existed here, the ratio of the large-angle scattering per atom divided by M² is no longer constant, the values for copper, silver, tin, platinum, and gold then being 1.16, 1.15, 1.19, 1.26, and 1.24 respectively, instead of 1.16, 1.15, 1.19, 1.17, and 1.15; and the same holds for the following relation concerning the number of intra-atomic electrons.