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Page 38
Each of the four funnels opens, as usual, on one face of the tetrahedron,
and they resemble the funnels of strontium and molybdenum but contain three
pillars instead of four (Plate XXIII). They stand within the funnel as
though at the angles of a triangle, not side by side. The contained bodies,
though numerous, contain forms which are all familiar.
The spikes alternate with the funnels, and point to the angles of the
tetrahedron as in zinc and cadmium; each spike contains three "lithium
spikes" (see Plate XIX) with a ten-atomed cone or cap at the top, floating
above the three (Plate XXIV). The "petals" or "cigars" of lithium exist in
the central globe in the floating atoms, and the four-atomed groups which
form the lithium "plate" may be seen in the funnels, so that the whole of
lithium appears in radium.
So much for its composition. But a very peculiar result, so far unobserved
elsewhere, arises from the extraordinarily rapid whirling of the central
sphere. A kind of vortex is formed, and there is a constant and powerful
indraught through the funnels. By this, particles are drawn in from
without, and these are swept round with the sphere, their temperature
becoming much raised, and they are then violently shot out through the
spikes. It is these jets which occasionally sweep away an atom from the
surface of the sphere. These "particles" may be atoms, or they may be
bodies from any of the etheric levels; in some cases these bodies break up
and form new combinations. In fact lithium seems like a kind of vortex of
creative activity, drawing in, breaking up, recombining, shooting forth--a
most extraordinary element.
RADIUM: 4 funnels of 618 atoms 2472
4 spikes of 199 atoms 796
Central sphere 819
----
Total 4087
----
Atomic weight ----
Number weight 4087/18 227.05
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.]
* * * * *
APPENDIX.
THE �THER OF SPACE.
Much discussion has taken place, especially between physicists and
chemists, over the nature of the substances with which all space must,
according to scientific hypothesis, be filled. One side contends that it is
infinitely thinner than the thinnest gas, absolutely frictionless and
without weight; the other asserts that it is denser than the densest solid.
In this substance the ultimate atoms of matter are thought to float, like
motes in a sunbeam, and light, heat and electricity are supposed to be its
vibrations.
Theosophical investigators, using methods not at the disposal of physical
science, have found that this hypothesis includes under one head two
entirely different and widely separated sets of phenomena. They have been
able to deal with states of matter higher than the gaseous and have
observed that it is by means of vibrations of this finer matter that light,
heat and electricity manifest themselves to us. Seeing that matter in these
higher states thus performs the functions attributed to the ether of
science, they have (perhaps unadvisedly) called these states etheric, and
have thus left themselves without a convenient name for that substance
which fulfils the other part of the scientific requirements.
Let us for the moment name this substance _koilon_, since it fills what we
are in the habit of calling empty space. What m�laprakrti, or
"mother-matter," is to the inconceivable totality of universes, koilon is
to our particular universe--not to our solar system merely but to the vast
unit which includes all visible suns. Between koilon and m�laprakrti there
must be various stages, but we have at present no direct means of
estimating their number or of knowing anything whatever about them.
In an ancient occult treatise, however, we read of a "colorless spiritual
fluid" "which exists everywhere and forms the first foundation on which our
solar system is built. Outside the latter, it is found in its pristine
purity only between the stars [suns] of the universe.... As its substance
is of a different kind from that known on earth, the inhabitants of the
latter, seeing _through it_, believe, in their illusion and ignorance, that
it is empty space. There is not one finger's breadth of void space in the
whole boundless universe."[21] "The mother-substance" is said, in this
treatise, to produce this �ther of space as its seventh grade of density,
and all objective suns are said to have this for their "substance."
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