HYPOTHESIS OF RADIANT MATTER 59 



to have contained: but, until a loss of copper be ascertained, to corre- 

 spond with the gain in lithium, it appears to me that the assumption 

 of transformation is premature. Kamsay found that this solution con- 

 tained in all 1.67 mg. alkaline chlorides, chiefly sodium chloride; while 

 0.79 mg. were produced in a blank experiment, when the emanation 

 was excluded. While this latter amount is admittedly derived from the 

 glass bulb, the excess obtained in the presence of emanation is ascribed 

 to the degradation of the copper, neglecting the fact that this second 

 solution must have been fairly acid and would, therefore, have attacked 

 the glass more vigorously. Accepting his suggestion, however, the 

 deficit of copper ought to approach 0.8 mg., an amount which ordinary 

 analysis can detect. We may, therefore, hope that further experiments 

 by Professor Eamsay will throw light upon this side of the subject. 



Of Eamsay's present conclusion, the following resume may be given : 

 Emanation is a gas of about atomic weight 216.5, derived from radium, 

 of atomic weight 225, simultaneously with a-particles which are not 

 helium. When emanation and the a-particles are shut up together, the 

 bombardment of the latter breaks up the emanation into helium ; but if 

 heavier molecules, like water, be present, they receive some of the 

 bombardment, and the emanation is only degraded into neon; the 

 pressure of copper nitrate still further protecting the emanation, so that 

 it only breaks clown to argon. This kinetic explanation is not im- 

 peccable; for, according to the principles of mass-action, the prepon- 

 derance of water molecules in the copper nitrate solution, as well as the 

 predominance of hydrogen and oxygen in its decomposition products, 

 would imply the presence of considerable amounts of neon to accom- 

 jDany the argon. As neon is said to be absent, we must either seek for 

 some other hypothesis or explain how the neon reverts to argon after 

 it is once formed. 



Eamsay's views contradict those of Eutherford and others, who seek 

 to identify helium with the a-rays, and the latter would thereby lose a 

 good deal of their substantive character. Furthermore, it is to be 

 noted that the a-particles bear positive charges : if they were merely 

 chemical atoms, such a charge might possibly be obtained as they tore 

 themselves loose from the larger complex, during radiation; but if 

 they be non-substantive masses of free energy, it will be difficult to 

 reconcile the various assumed transformations with the electro-chemical 

 properties, valencies, etc., of the elements in question. 



It must be recalled that Eutherford does assume that the successive 

 transformations of radium, for instance, are effected by the expulsions 

 of the a-particles and that these have atomic mass : an atom of radium, 

 therefore, contains a finite number of them. As the transformations 

 are atomic and not molecular, Eutherford's application of the mathe- 

 matics of mass-action can mean but one thing: that the various rates 

 of transformation depend upon the chances of encounter and relative 



