6 spikes of 126 " 756
Central globe 120
----
Total 2124
----
Atomic weight 118.10
Number weight 2124/18 118.00
V.--THE BARS GROUPS.

[Illustration: PLATE XVII.]

Here, for the first time, we find ourselves a little at issue with the
accepted system of chemistry. Fluorine stands at the head of a
group--called the inter-periodic--whereof the remaining members are (see
Crookes' table, p. 28), manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel; ruthenium,
rhodium, palladium; osmium, iridium, platinum. If we take all these as
group V, we find that fluorine and manganese are violently forced into
company with which they have hardly any points of relationship, and that
they intrude into an otherwise very harmonious group of closely similar
composition. Moreover, manganese reproduces the characteristic lithium
"spike" and not the bars of those into whose company it is thrust, and it
is thus allied with lithium, with which indeed it is almost identical. But
lithium is placed by Crookes at the head of a group, the other members of
which are potassium, rubidium and cæsium (the last not examined). Following
these identities of composition, I think it is better to remove manganese
and fluorine from their incongruous companions and place them with lithium
and its allies as V _a_, the Spike Groups, marking, by the identity of
number, similarities of arrangement which exist, and by the separation the
differences of composition. It is worth while noting what Sir William
Crookes, in his "Genesis of the Elements," remarks on the relations of the