TRANSMUTATION OF ELEMENTS. 243 



Notes. 



(1) It will be observed that the total acidity of the Pontac 

 must was again very high. 



1 2 ) The all important point here is the fact that the levure 

 J [eA3 continued the fermentation for 24 hours after the fortifi- 

 cation, and did not stop until the very high figure of 16.84 volume 

 per cent, alcohol had been reached. This means that in making 

 sweet wines on the Port system, one must put the final strengti 

 of the wine at 17 volume per cent, alcohol in order to avoid a 

 secondary fermentation. 



(3) It will be observed that the wine has kept some (1.4%) 

 sugar. 



On the foregoing pages we have got some physiological 

 studies about the pure levures cultivated and selected by the 

 author. These researches will be extended in future, and the 

 morphology of these levures studied in due course. 



In conclusion I have much pleasure in thanking Mr. W 

 Wagener, Assistant Government Yiticulturist, for the valuable 

 assistance he has given me during the course of the above 

 studies. He is responsible for all the analyses quoted in this 

 paper. 



Transmutation of Elements. — Two papers, 



which may possibly prove to be epoch-marking, were read at the 

 meeting of the Chemical Society. London, on the 6th Feb- 

 ruary. One of these, by Sir William Ramsay, was entitled " The 

 presence of helium in the gas from the interior of an A'-ray 

 tube," and the other, by Professor J. Norman Collie and Mr. 

 H. Patterson, was on " The presence of neon in hydrogen after 

 the passage of the electric discharge through hydrogen at low 

 pressures." The importance of the announcements made by 

 the authors lies in the virtual claim which they make to have 

 done one of two things: either ( 1 ) to have achieved, clearly and 

 definitely, the transmutation of elements, or (2) to have suc- 

 ceeded in evolving matter from en erg} - ; or. to put it in another 

 way, to have formed material atoms by synthesis. The 

 alchemist, who used to dream of turning iron into gold, was 

 regarded with amused interest as recently as twenty years ago, 

 but when Sir William Ramsay first announced his discovery that 

 radium broke down into helium and niton (not to mention his 

 later assertions regarding the production of lithium from copper, 

 and of carbon dioxide from thorium and silicon under the 

 action of niton), the interest in the old alchemists and their 

 fancies was heightened, and there was a corresponding diminution 

 of the amusement. Ramsay's discovery, however, had reference 

 to the spontaneous breaking down of heavy elements into lighter 

 ones, while the announcements now made affirm the building up 

 of the light elements at the opposite end of the scale. This 



