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The hyperfine separation Av (2S) of the metastable 2 2 S § state has been measured by a new atomic-beam magnetic-resonance method. Rf transitions were detected by utilizing a property peculiar to metastable hydrogen atoms, namely, that atoms with mj--\ decay much more rapidly in passing through a magnetic field of about 575 gauss than do atoms with mj--\-\. We found that Av{2S) -lll 556.86±0.05 kc/sec. From this result and the very accurately known hyperfine separation Av(\S) of the ground state, we obtain R=Ai>(2S)/Ai>(lS) = i (1.000 034 6=bO.O0O 000 3). The deviation of R from the presently available theoretical value suggests the existence of a higher-order quantum-electrodynamic term.A method of velocity selection by electron impact is described.The deviation from Rtheov produced by the structure of the proton is expected to be too small to be observable, but quantum-electrodynamic effects of order a 3 may give rise to an observable deviation. A report 4 * 5 on our preliminary measurements of A v(2S) has been published previously.

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