The striving after greater stability is the impulse to all chemical combinations in which atoms have a common property, that is, to insure a common electron shell. In order to abolish the compound it requires the application of energy from without, and on the contrary the entrance into a compound in general needs no application of energy and frequently is associated with the giving off of energy. In order to understand the tendencies of the individual elements or their groups for we desire to penetrate into their nature we shall again cast a glance at the periodic system. However, it is better if in place of taking a flat surface as a perfect representation we employ a cylinder or a curved surface. One should place Table 1 as rolled together so that on the surface of the cylinder there is a sequence of the elements in a spiral. It is for this reason that the horizontals are oblique.
The tendencies of affinities of the elements are arranged by the electron status of its outer ring. Let us take, for example, the element sodium with an electron number of 11. The innermost ring has 2 electrons, the middle 8, and the outer ring 1 electron. This single electron tends to be given off from the remaining solid hull. This tendency to give off an electron we call electropositive, because after the departure of the electron, the positive nuclear charge is predominant. Sodium is univalent electropositive. This holds for all the elements of Group I, or the alkali metals in the same way. Let us now take the chlorine atom Cl, with an ordinal number of 17. This has in its outer ring 7 electron. For its stabilization it needs 1 electron, it has an electron hunger of 1, and it is univalent electronegative. One might also say: it is 7 valent electropositive, but the departure of 7 electrons is not as easily effected as the acceptance of 1 electron. Univalent electronegativity is again the characteristic of the entire Group VII the halogens. No wonder that the atoms of Group I and Group VII combine easily and neutralize each other if the medium in which they are present is satisfactory in any way. Group II for example magnesium, Mg, with the ordinal number of 12 has 2 electrons in the outer ring, is divalent electropositive, Group III, trivalent electropositive, Group VI for example sulphur, S, with the ordinal number of 16 lacks 2 electrons of the 8 for stability, so it is divalent electronegative. Also here one might speak of 6 valent electropositivity. Group V is trivalent electronegative, Group III, trivalent electropositive and pentavalent electronegatively, both being of significance for the tendencies to combination. Group IV stands in the middle being tetravalent electropositively and electronegatively.
The electropositive valences can also be designated as oxygen valences as they tend to combine with oxygen, O, as well as the electronegative hydroxyl, OH and the electronegative as hydrogen valences which tend to combine with hydrogen. We see the steplike increase of value or valence in the positive sense from left to right, in the negative sense from right to left. Whether the individual atoms make more use of their positive or their negative valences depends upon the external conditions. It is to be observed that for example the tendency to give off electrons, likewise to charge itself positively, predominates in actuality. This is particularly the case of the elements with higher ordinal numbers. A glance at chemical compounds teaches, for example, that the OH compounds, also the O valence in Groups V and VI are very significant and further the positive 5 and 6 valences are as important as the 3 and 2 valent negativity.
IONS
For the giving off or acceptance of valence electrons the cooperation of the medium is essential. In general the discussion will follow the most common agent of solution, water H. OH. Such a medium one calls dielectric and the material which exchanges electrons by its separation (dissociation) through the dielectric medium is called an electrolyte. The charged atoms (or atom complices) thereby arising are called ions, that is wanderers, because they wander through the electrolyte solution by the conduction of an electric current and moreover the positively charged atoms wander to the negative pole, the cathode and the negatively charged to the positive pole, the anode. The positively charged cathode wanderers are therefore called cations and the negatively charged anode wanderers, anions. Yet the ions probably do not develop first as charged atoms by the introduction of an electric current, but their presence, their charge, is the presumption for the conductivity of a solution for an electric current.
The type and stability of union of atoms to molecules determines in the dissociation in water whether the separated ions react with the H plus and the OH- ions of the neutral water and produce a predominance of H plus ions, an acid reaction, acidity or predominance of OH- ions, that is, an alkaline reaction, alkalinity, or whether it will remain in equilibrium with the ions of the water, that is, react as neutral. The number of freed H plus or OH- depending on the type and stability of the compound designates the degree of acidity or alkalinity of a compound. So one speaks of strong or weak acids or bases.
We must mentally review the compounds in inorganic chemistry with their reactions in order to further characterize the elements of the periodic system in detail. Here it is sufficient to outline the broadest tendencies of the elements because after that we may give a preliminary survey of their connections to the organism.
But a special consideration must be given to the middle position of the carbon-group, IV. It is no accident that exactly here the tendency exists for the chemical compounds of the carbon atom to combine with each other, so- called homeopolar compounds while otherwise homonymous charges are repelled. Here, where equally many positive as negative charges are present, an enormous number of compounds take their point of departure which forms the subject of so-called organic chemistry.
COSMIC FREQUENCY OF THE ELEMENTS
So much for the present on the periodic system of elements in general. Now we must consider the elements in their significance for the composition of the world in order to subsequently apply the same consideration to the composition of the organism and the significance of the elements in it. In regard to the participation of elements in the structure of world bodies Harkins has shown two facts worthy of consideration. The first is that in the world composition the elements with even ordinal numbers are significantly predominant over the elements with odd ordinal numbers, in chaotic meteorites about seventy times, in the more differentiated world crust about seven times. For the cosmos in general the rule of the Oddo and Harkins holds that elements of even ordinal numbers are about ten times as frequent as the neighboring elements with odd ordinal numbers. What now is the significance of the even or odd ordinal numbers? As we have seen this proceeds out of the intra-atomic structure, the nuclear structure of the element. One can think of the even- numbered elements as composed purely out of helium particles with an ordinal number of 2, whereas the odd numbered only from helium plus hydrogen particles. The predominance of even-numbered elements in the composition of the world speaks distinctly for their stability in contrast to the odd numbered. It is the same with elements as with living organisms. Their existence or possibility of self-preservation is so much the better, that is, they are more frequently able to maintain themselves the better and they are able to defend themselves against external influences by virtue of their composition. That the helium particle itself is an especially stabile structure is known from other proof and it may be shown mathematically as well.
The second fact is that the first twenty-nine elements of the periodic system are significantly preponderant in frequency throughout the world. These twenty-nine lightest elements form 99.99 per cent of the total content of meteorites and 99.85 per cent of the solid earth crust. But therein the very light elements, lithium, beryllium and boron are quite rare and geochemistry has shown the reason for this in their structure (V. M. Goldschmidt). The elements with higher atomic weights beyond the ordinal number of twenty-nine play a subordinate role in he percentual composition of world bodies. These two facts state: the less complex the atom nucleus is, the sooner its formation occurs and the more frequent its existence. Since one can conceive of the development of elements only according to ordinal numbers it is clear that the elements with lower ordinal numbers predominate ceteris paribus, but only ceteris paribus. So far as they particularly satisfy the requirements of external powers in their stability they will combine the greater part of the available world materials in their form.
Leeser, a Consultant Physician at the Stuttgart Homeopathic Hospital and a member of the German Central Society of Homeopathic Physicians, fled Germany in 1933 after being expelled by the German Medical Association. In England Otto Leeser joined the staff of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. He returned to Germany in the 1950s to run the Robert Bosch Homeopathic Hospital in Stuttgart, but died shortly after.
Otto Leeser wrote Textbook of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Leesers Lehrbuch der Homöopathie, Actionsand Medicinal use of Snake Venoms, Solanaceae, The Contribution of Homeopathy to the Development of Medicine, Homeopathy and chemotherapy, and many articles submitted to The British Homeopathic Journal,