After a review of the magnetic and spectroscopic properties of compounds of the rare earth and of transitional elements of the first group, the types of bands in spectra of the latter are considered in detail. Reasons are advanced for the view that these are of “molecular” origin in ferric salts, but that the spectra of some transitional compounds contain lines which cannot be regarded in this way. Such lines are shown to be ionic, or quasi-ionic, and accord well with the suggestion of inter-combination transitions such as 4F—2G.

The theoretical intensity conditions, as a function of multiplet intervals, are in agreement with the observed appearance of intercombination transitions in Cr, and possibly also in Mn and Co. Similar considerations apply to the rare-earth spectra. As an example we have shown that the strong absorption in Pr and Nd compounds, and the much weaker lines found in Sa and Eu, are in perfect agreement with the theoretical prediction of intercombinations.