These are taken from the products of the first disintegration of the chemical atom, by forcibly removing it from its hole. The groups fly apart, assuming a great variety of forms often more or less geometrical; the lines between the constituents of the groups, where indicated, no longer represent lines of force, but are intended to represent the impression of form, _i.e._, of the relative position and motion of the constituents, made on the mind of the observer. They are elusive, for there are no lines, but the appearance of lines is caused by the rapid motion of the costituents up and down, or along them backwards and forwards. The dots represent atoms, or groups of atoms, within the proto-elements. 1 is found in C; 2 and 3 in He; 4 in Fl; 5 in Li; 6 in N; 7 in Ru; 8 in Na; 9 and 10 in Co; 11 in Fe; 12 in Se. We shall return to these when analysing the elements, and shall meet many other proto-elemental groupings. The first thing which is noticed by the observer, when he turns his attention to the chemical atoms, is that they show certain definite forms, and that within these forms, modified in various ways, sub-groupings are observable which recur in connexion with the same modified form. The main types are not very numerous, and we found that, when we arranged the atoms we had observed, according to their external forms, they fell into natural classes; when these, in turn, were compared with Sir William Crookes' classification, they proved to be singularly alike. Here is his arrangement of the elements, as it appeared in the _Proceedings of the Royal Society_, in a paper read on June 9th, 1898. [Illustration] This is to be read, following the lines of the "figures of eight": H, He, Li, Gl, B, C, N, and so on, each successive element being heavier than the one preceding it in order. The disks which fall immediately below each other form a class; thus: H, Cl, Br, I; these resemble each other in various ways, and, as we shall presently see, the same forms and groupings re-appear. Another chart--taken from Erdmann's _Lehrbuch_--arranges the elements on a curved line, which curiously resembles the curves within the shell of a nautilus. The radiating lines show the classes, the whole diameter building up a family; it will be observed that there is an empty radius between hydrogen and helium, and we have placed occultum there; on the opposite radius, iron, rubidium and osmium are seen. [Illustration] The external forms may be classified as follows; the internal details will be dealt with later :-- [Illustration: PLATE III.]