protyle
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From proto- + (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “timber, material”).
Pronunciation
Noun
protyle (countable and uncountable, plural protyles)
- (physics, chemistry, historical) A hypothetical base substance from which all chemical elements were believed to have been made; subatomic particles.
- 1918, E. H. R., Abstract of Curt Schmidt, "The Periodic System and Genesis of the Elements", in Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. 114, part 2, 1918, p. 305–306
- Two principles are postulated, according to which the elements have probably been evolved: (1) the ontogenic principle, involving the formation of the primary members of the different groups by direct condensation of protyl; (2) the phytogenetic principle, by which the higher members of the groups are developed from the lower by a process of integration.
- 2002, Philip Ball, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2004, p. 73:
- Dumas wondered whether the fundamental building blocks of atoms might be some smaller division of the hydrogen atom: a half, say, or a quarter. This basic substance became known as ‘protyle’.
- 1918, E. H. R., Abstract of Curt Schmidt, "The Periodic System and Genesis of the Elements", in Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. 114, part 2, 1918, p. 305–306