MODERN ALCHEMY. 143 



uranium 'with its alpha-rays. The flowers with their scent 

 decay in our hand; so does the uranium X with its beta- 

 rays. But the vine begins at once to restore its flowers 

 with their scent and soon has as many as before; so does 

 the uranium soon restore its uranium X with its beta-rays. 

 We must not be misled by our analogy: The plant produces 

 its flowers by growth, the uranium its uranium X ap- 

 parently by decomposition. 



"But" you say, " do you mean us to infer that the ele- 

 ment uranium (the element, mind you) is transformed into 

 a totally different body ? " We may as well face the issue 

 squarely. Yes. We do. Furthermore, we believe that it 

 is changing at a definite rate every second of the day, day 

 in and day out forever, or at any rate so long as any of 

 it remains. We believe that we have here a veritable trans- 

 mutation of matter just as wonderful as would be the trans- 

 mutation of lead into gold, no more no less. We believe 

 that the alchemists were right, that matter is not only, 

 transmutable but transmuting, and that without the aid of 

 any philosopher's stone, diabolic influences, or even the 

 modern appliances of a scientific laboratory. Nay, in spite 

 of them; for, apparently, no human effort can either aid or 

 hinder this process. It seems to be the very symbol of in- 

 evitability. 



We may now imagine ourselves confronted by an oppo- 

 nent in the form of a chemist of the old school, one whose 

 mind has lost some of its plasticity so that he does not 

 readily assimilate new ideas , but who, nevertheless is true 

 to the traditions of his class in being thoroughly " skyp- 

 tical." We can imagine this gentleman saying: " Pooh. 

 How do you know that this uranium X is different from 

 uranium?" We can answer this question fairly and 

 squarely by the statement that it has different chemical 



