76 BIO-RADIOACTIVITY, EOBES, RADIOBES 



well. Photographic plates often contain a negative of the plate- 

 holder. That this is not a case of radioactivity appears to be proved, 

 says the author, for a glass or a mica screen of one thousandth of an 

 inch in thickness entirely protects the plate from being acted on. 



Finally Paul Becquerel ^ undertook a careful study of "plant 

 radioactivity." He tested pea seeds, moss {Hypnum), and branches 

 of boxwood for radioactivity, but found not a trace of it manifest 

 when the electroscope was carefully guarded from water-vapor. 

 This explains the condition found necessary by Tommasina, that the 

 parts of plants must be freshl}' picked in order to manifest bio-radio- 

 activity. According to Becquerel, the discharge of the electroscope 

 in Tommasina's experiments was due to the water in the plants. 



From all the investigations noted above, the general conclusion 

 seems to be warranted that radioactivity is not a property of proto- 

 plasm nor of living tissues. A clear understanding of the nature of 

 radioactivity would lead, a priori, to the same inference. 



2. The Professed Artificial Crf:ation of Life 



Radioactivity and vital activity are in two respects very roughly, 

 but only very superficially analogous. Both radioactive bodies and 

 living organisms are undergoing a destructive process ; atomic disin- 

 tegration in the one, molecular transformation in the other ; both, with 

 exceptions, maintain themselves constantly at a higher temperature 

 than their surroundings. These analogies have in two or three 

 instances proven dangerously attractive. 



A consideration of radioactivity led Dubois, ^^ in 1904, to the view 

 that the distinction between " matter of life" and "living matter" is 

 superficial. He proposed the term bioproteon, meaning the partic- 

 ular state of the " proteon " in living beings, and suggested the desira- 

 bility of determining the radioactivity proper of the bioproteon. In a 

 subsequent paper ^^ he says : " The unique principle of everything, of 

 both force and matter, I have called ' proteon,' and when it pertains 

 to a living being, 'bioproteon.'" Pr.oteon and bioproteon are only 

 two different states of the same thing. When the bioproteon is dead 

 it has only ceased to be radioactive and becomes simply proteon. He 

 claimed also to have discovered the emission, from the lamellibranch 

 mollusc, Phalade daciyle, of rays that could penetrate paper and 

 opaque substances, and darken a sensitive plate. 



Early in the year 1905 appeared his paper ^^ on " La creation de 

 Vetre vivant et les lois natiirelles''' in which he announced the forma- 



