. POPULAR SCIENCE 251 



block of ice — is produced by certain assorted forces inherent in 

 the matter ; that the other physical manifestations, known as 

 weight, colour, etc., are also caused by inherent forces ; that the 

 other properties of this substance in the liquid state are due to 

 certain liberated forms of Energy which now manifest themselves 

 in the " work " characteristic of this state ; that the change 

 from the liquid to the gaseous forms of matter, in turn, is due 

 to a further liberation of energy ; and that the change from the 

 molecular form to the simpler atomic one is conditioned by a 

 further liberation of energy, such as we bring about by electro- 

 13'^ses. These deductions are only such as concern the physical 

 change in the same atomic structures, but our knowledge of 

 Force has been further enlarged by the study of radio-activity, 

 for here we become acquainted with a change that reveals the 

 construction of the atom itself, now actually resolvable, in part 

 at least into electronic activity, theoretically into nothing but 

 electronic activity. Further, here the disintegration of the 

 radio-active atom has been found to be no pure disintegration, 

 but one occurring pari passu with the necessary accompaniment 

 of a change from an unstable substance to a more stable one 

 — no true retrogression in the complexity of the original sub- 

 stance, for the uranium atom or the thorium atom, losing its 

 electrones, becomes also transmuted through a gradual series 

 of substances until some final products, in each case, of greater 

 stability and of high atomic complexity or heterogeny as well, 

 are produced, i.e. the change from heterogeny to homogeneity 

 represents only the cycle taken by the emanation and the re- 

 sultant simplex of the helium atom ; the necessary accompani- 

 ment — the change from uranium to probably lead, from thorium 

 to probably bismuth; — being still one retaining its heterogeny ,^ 

 a change from one complex into another complex and no true 

 simplification. It is a natural truth that simplification does 

 not occur here, without complication there. 



Spencer assumed that, with the complication or Evolution 

 of Matter, matter became more integrated, and in this integration 

 stored up a greater quantity of Force than it dissipated ; but 

 when Matter underwent simplification or dissolution, it became 

 disintegrated, and in this disintegration it dissipated more Force 

 than it stored in itself. He further assumed that these two 

 changes were going on simultaneously and incessantly in Nature, 

 and that the alternating disequilibrium between the two changes 

 was rhythmical. 



This is the truth, but only the partial truth, for as a result of 



these universal rhythms — to which we are now attributing even 



all chemical change ^ — there are other concurrent cycles produced 



in the storing up of Force, represented, only in a simpler form, 



^ Cf. Science Progress, January 1920, p. 376. 



