120 



THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



.' 



and restoring processes; and since, moreover, these processes 

 are wholly outside the sphere of known controllable forces, 

 and cannot be created, altered or destroyed since the process 

 is independent of the chemical form of the radium, whether 

 bromide, chloride, sulphate, etc., we are absolutely shut 

 up to the conviction that it is a function of its atom. "We 

 are in the presence of a veritable decay of the atom. The 

 atom of radium breaks down into atoms of emanation and 



eo 



Tnne 



Fie. 39. 



the atoms of emanation in their turn break down into some- 

 thing else. The activity of the emanation decays in ac- 

 cordance with the curve given in Fig. 39, and falls to half 

 value in about 3.7 days. This has rendered it possible to 

 calculate that there should be 463,000 times as much emana- 

 tion stored in the solid as is formed per second. Now, on 

 dissolving the radium in water all this emanation should be 

 spontaneously /emitted in a rush, and this rush of emanation 





