mediary action between the nutritious matter put 

 into the soil and the action which took place in 

 abstracting it from it. Those chinges were 

 now undergoing cjrdful investigation, and 

 there would be very great results as re- 

 garded skilful agriculture if they were 

 carefully and properly observed (applause). 

 He now came perhaps to the great discovery of 

 the year if one might character. se it as such when 

 they were* startled with discoveries every day 

 almost, viz . th it of the recent elactd-ition of the 

 extraordinary radium. To give anything like aa 

 exposition evej at the present stage of th^ir know- 

 ledge as r>^garded that wonderful phenojienoa, 

 would take up the whole of the tim^ at his 

 disposal, so that he would simply gttte them one 

 or two particulars respecting it. Radium was 

 extracted from a mineral, pitch blen<l, which was 

 the source, and thR soli source of uranium, — 

 indeed it was through experiment j witb uranium 

 that ridium was first observed. Monsieur ani 

 Madame Curie aft^r researches, — which were 

 perhaps the mist laba-ious, tint chemistry bore 

 any reci-irJof — isolated three remarUa'jle substances 

 after extracting from the mass of pitch-blend, 

 urmium, which th^y all kaew abounded in very 

 large prjportioa. Madame Curie gave to tht. first 

 she discovered, the name of Pol >nium, after the 

 name of hei own native 1 ind ; Radium was discover- 

 ed soon att rkvaids, and soon after that Actinium. 

 With regard to Polonium and Actinium, very 

 little was known, and with regard to Kaiium, ail 

 that had been ascertained was that at preseat it 

 was looked upon as a metal. It had only been 

 seen in combinition with Bromine and Chlorme, 

 and was remarkable for its ladianc properties, ani 

 its raliant po.ver, which compired with the most 

 radiant bodies k no vn, such as uranium and th irium. 

 Indeed,the radiant po-ver of r.idium compared with 

 thorium or uranium was more tbao, a million 

 times as great, but at present it was extremely 

 expensive, the prica quote i a day or two ago being 

 lOD guineas tor a single grain. And when he 

 mejtion'^d that the ocean containtd gold, and 

 that it was easier to get that gold out of the 

 ocean than it was to extract radium from pitch 

 blend, they would understand why it was so 

 expensive. It had remarkable electrical proper- 

 ties, for there emanated from radium at least 

 three clisses of rays. The'^se wer:) electro 

 positive, electro- negative, and another set 

 of very wi^nderful lays, similtr to X rays. 

 A very remarkable fact to be mentioned in 

 counejtioi v-ith ridium was th it under proper 

 coadttions tho e ralLant properties were the 

 result of decomposition, and there resulted from 

 that ddcompositioa anjthiTvery rare element — 

 if it was an eleme it— which had not been before 

 the world very long — he alluded tj something 

 present in the air, and also in the sun's atmosphere, 

 viz., helium. Of course, they would say that, in 

 speaking thus of radium, it was proof that radium 

 was not an element at all. But thp view of 

 scientists with regard t) the question at the 

 present m tment was, not that radium is 

 not an elemeat, but that eh'ments wera 

 themselves capable of decomposit oa. However 

 that might be, one thing was certain, and that 



was that emanations from radium resulted 

 in the production of helium. That was a very 

 wonderful thing indeed, and so completely 

 altered their views as regarded the conservation 

 of energy ani also the immutable character of 

 elements themselves, that with bated breath they 

 awaited further great developments in that 

 diraction. The speaker dilated upon the great 

 penetrating qualities of raiium, neither gases, 

 liquids, or s ilids being able to obstruct its rays. 

 Professor Curie, he said, declared that he would 

 not like to go into a room where a pound of radium 

 was kept; he woull expect tr» be blinded and 

 ultim itely killed for his temerity, but they were 

 not informed what M idame Curie thought on the 

 matter. Certain it was that the emanations from 

 radium were of a remarkable character. It was 

 already being used in cancer. The difficulties of 

 thi Roatgen rays with regard to cancer was that 

 they had to be distributed from the external 

 surface, but in the Cise of the radium there 

 appeared to be a possibility of sealing up in small 

 tubes a very minuta poition of radium and intro- 

 ducing it into the cancer itself, and thus getting 

 results where results were wanted. There was a 

 very great future, he thought, in medicine for 

 that remarkable substance, and the whole question 

 of emanations must be most interesting to the 

 faculty. He might mention before he left the 

 subject of raiium that the Bath waters contained 

 helium, and theopinion hadrecently been expressed 

 that the efiicacy of those Bath waters depended 

 upon the emanations from helium. If that was 

 so they had the explanation of the fact that Bath 

 waters unless drunk at thi spring itself, and 

 befoiM those emanations dissipated themselves, 

 lost their curative properties. He need hardly 

 say that herj was a j^reat field fc>r further investi- 

 gation. They had therefore in radium a proof as 

 far a; they hai gone of the dissociation of 

 elements. They were led to ask themselves the 

 question just now, were they going near to proving 

 the idea, cherished by the old alchemists that 

 matter was capable of transmutation. They knew 

 that those alchemists aimed at turning the baser 

 sorts of metals into gold ; they also knew that they 

 spent years of their life-time in investigations of 

 that character — they sacrificed health, wealth, and 

 even Lfe itself for it. They also knew that they 

 worked for this, they hoped for this, they expected 

 this, and in somg cases they bvlieved they had 

 attained their desire. But after all their work 

 their sun went down io darkness and disappoint- 

 ment and despair, bequeathing to others the 

 exper'.eace of their long toil. But that toil was not 

 alt>getherin vain, for they were tiie founders of 

 modern chemistry, the foundations of which they 

 well and truly liid, but which became in the 

 hands of WoUtstoa, Black. Cavendish. Davy, 

 Dal Con, and others, a great and important 

 factor. These men not only extended 

 the foundations laid by th? alchemi^t^, but built 

 ther.'Oi.and we^-eth's prime factors in the progress 

 of civilizition itself. Therj was not ai art or 

 science, or occupation that could do without the 

 help of the chemi-t— astronomy, botany, photo- 

 graphy, met illurgy, geology, raeiicin*^, all these 

 had been helped, and owed their development to 



