This time he found the
atom of hydrogen to be far simpler than the other, so that the minor atoms
constituting the hydrogen atom were countable. They were arranged on a
definite plan, which will be rendered intelligible by diagrams later on,
and were eighteen in number.
We little realized at the moment the enormous significance of this
discovery, made in the year 1895, long before the discovery of radium
enabled physicists of the ordinary type to improve their acquaintance with
the "electron." Whatever name is given to that minute body it is recognised
now by ordinary science as well as by occult observation, as the
fundamental unit of physical matter. To that extent ordinary science has
overtaken the occult research I am dealing with, but that research rapidly
carried the occult student into regions of knowledge whither, it is
perfectly certain, the ordinary physicist must follow him at no distant
date.
The research once started in the way I have described was seen to be
intensely interesting. Mrs. Besant almost immediately co-operated with Mr.
Leadbeater in its further progress. Encouraged by the success with
hydrogen, the two important gases, oxygen and nitrogen, were examined.
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