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164
COSMOLOGY OLD AND NEW
its own proper energy; and, second, the faculty of expending this energy in its own way, in attaching other atoms to itself, not indiscriminately, but in definite atoms and in definite numbers."-C.A. Wurtz (1869). The atom-fixing power of an element has been termed valency by the modern chemist. A. S. Couper (1858) called it the affinity of degree. For instance, the valency of an atom of nitrogen is one in N2O, two in NO, three in N2O3, four in N2O4, and five in N2Os. The valency of an atom of chlorine is one in HCl, four in CIO, and seven in C1207.
"The differences in the valency of different elements have been explained by supposing that an atom of an n-valent element is compounded of n-units, each of which is capable of attracting one other unit. A constant quantity of one element, said E. Erlenmeyer (1862), never binds itself to more or to less than a constant quantity of another element-this he called the law of affinivalencies....A. W. Hofmann (1865) called, the same, the minimum atom-binding quantities of an element," the Jainas connoted this idea by the difference in the degrees of gunas.
It should be noted however that except in the case of ionized atoms (skandhadesa) (see p. 135 ante) the resulting molecule formed by the union of atoms is (Samaguni) neutral, neither snigdha nor ruksa. However in the process of ionisation, explained on page 137, it is easy to see how an electron by attaching itself to a neutral atom changes the latter into its own kind-negative ion.
How a snigdha particle is changed to ruksa or vice versa is seen very well in the example given above and in many others. Chlorine atom in HCL (hydrochloric acid) is ruksa while the same atom in Cl2O, is snigdha, in the modern language they are called respectively electro-negative and electro-positive. Hydrogen atom in HCI is electro-positive. While the same atom in sodium is potassium hydride (NaH or KH) is electronegative. Many more such examples can be cited. Thus the truth enunciated in the sutra is established.
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