Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/605

Rh the very electro-positive elements of the lithium group; and that, in consequence of their lack of electric polarity, and their inactivity, they form, in a certain sense, a connecting link between the two. It is curious, too, to notice that iodine, xenon, cæsium and barium form the ends of their respective columns. It is, of course, not impossible that other elements may be discovered, possessing similar properties, and yet higher atomic weights than these; but as yet there is no clue to guide us where to search for them.

It is difficult, owing to the impossibility of effecting a complete separation of the inactive elements from each other, to do more than hazard a guess as to their relative amount in air. As they are easily separated from the other constituents of air, there is no doubt as to their total amount; air contains 0.937 parts of argon and its companions by volume in 100 parts. Perhaps the table below may be taken as affording some indication of their relative amounts. Air contains by volume:

 0.937 parts of argon per hundred. One or two parts of neon per hundred thousand. One or two parts of helium per million. About one part of krypton per million. About one part of xenon per twenty million.

It is of course not impossible that xenon may contain an even smaller proportion of a still heavier gas; but it is unlikely. Sea-water sometimes contains a grain of gold per ton; that is one part in 15,180,000; a grain of xenon is contained in about four hundredweights of air.

The problems suggested by the periodic table are by no means solved by the discovery of these aerial gases; but something has been done to throw light upon one obscure comer of the field. The gap between the electro-positive and the electro-negative elements has been bridged.