THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 173 



At the present time the only evidence of the evoUition of the atoms 

 is to be found in a study of the nebulae and the stars. The highly 

 attenuated nebulae contain only a few elements, mostly helium and 

 hydrogen. Apparently as these nebulae condense and grow older, 

 carbon, silicon, magnesium, calcium and iron appear. Apparently 

 sodium does not appear until later and th.e r»:trogen family is often 

 al)sent (as it is in the sun). Just how the elements can grow is 

 entirely speculative, though one would expect the combination of the 

 elements to be the inverse of the disintegration process. In this con- 

 nection it is interesting to mention Nicholson s process of building all 

 the elements out of four protyles : coronium, 0.5131 ; hydrogen, 1.008; 

 nebullium. 1.6277, 'i"*^! protofluorine, 2.3604. It is very remarkable 

 that many of the atomic weights can be made to be an almost exact 

 multiple of integral nuiltiples of one or more of the above protyles. 

 According to this view radium 'is a compound as fo-llows : 8 (Ht^ 

 x\u3 Pf, H,) 2 (He, Pfg H3) He3. 



Summary. — 1. The existence of radio-active matter in the air 

 accounts for the ionization and many of the other phenomena of 

 atmospheric electricity. 



2. The radium, uranium and thorium content of the rocks and 

 the oceans helps to explain many geological processes and serves to 

 establish a chronology of the rocks, 



3. The recent discoveries in astronomy indicate that radio-active 

 processes are probably cosmical. At the present the cause of the 

 penetrating radiation is not known. 



4. The disintegration of the elements appears to follow definite 

 laws that fit in with the periodic table and it seems entirely possible 

 that the evolution gf suns and other heavenly bodies is very intimately 

 related with a concomitant evolution of the elementary atoms them- 

 selves. The birth of atoms and stars may take place sin.ultaneously. 



5. The wide distribution of radio-active matter probably aft'ects 

 many phenomena of life, especially plant life and the weather. These 

 effects are probably small, except when cumulative. It is the effects 

 that are cumulative for millions and millions of years that are the most 

 important and these probably form the basic structure of our whole 

 cosmogeny. 



