It was pointed out by Newlands that atomicity and other properties of some of the chemical elements depend on the order in which their atomic weights succeeded one another; and when this law was extended by Professor Mendelejeff to all elements it was apparent that a mathematical relation exists between the elements. This far-reaching law has been fruitful of results. Referring to Professor Reynolds’s diagram illustrating the law, Mr. Crookes says: “The more I study the arrangement of this zigzag curve, the more I am convinced that he who grasps the key will be permitted to unlock some of the deepest mysteries of creation. Let us imagine if it is possible to get a glimpse of a few of the secrets here hidden. Let us picture the very beginnings of time, before geological ages, before the earth was thrown off from the central nucleus of molten fluid, before even the sun himself had consolidated from the original _protyle_.[74] Let us still imagine that at this primal stage all was in an ultra-gaseous state, at a temperature inconceivably hotter than anything now existing in the visible universe; so high, indeed, that the chemical atoms could not yet have been formed, being still far above their dissociation-point. In so far as _protyle_ is capable of radiating or reflecting light, this vast sea of incandescent mist, to an astronomer in a distant star, might have appeared as a nebula, showing in the spectroscope a few isolated lines, forecasts of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen spectra. [Footnote 74: _Protyle_ is the term adopted by Mr. Crookes to designate the original primal matter existing before the evolution of the chemical elements, and out of which they were evolved. Protyle in chemistry is analogous to _protoplasm_ in biology, with this difference, however, that protyle is as yet hypothetical, whereas protoplasm is known to be real.]