ATOMIC EVOLUTION 



work of Mr. Frederick Soddy, who collaborated 

 with Sir William Ramsay in discovering the evolu- 

 tion of helium from radium, we find the survival 

 of the fittest definitely stated as the primary law 

 of atomic evolution which would have interest- 

 ed Empedocles and Spencer, too. In the light of 

 these facts one reads with amusement that "the 

 synthetic philosophy has seen its best days." 

 With amusement rather than disgust, for per- 

 chance the survival of the fittest applies not only 

 to atoms and organisms and stars, but to philoso- 

 phies as well which is another way of saying that 

 magna est veritas, et praevalebit. 



But let us now look more closely at the positive 

 evidence for atomic evolution. 



I must not waste space in here describing the 

 spinthariscope, the clever little instrument in- 

 vented by Sir William Crookes in order to demon- 

 strate the activity of radium. Go into a dark 

 room with the spinthariscope and hold it as close 

 as possible to one eye. At once you see a shower 

 of points of light that never ceases, night or day, 

 year in, year out. You are witnessing atomic 

 evolution. 



Now the sight which the spinthariscope affords 

 is really the vindication of the much-abused al- 

 chemists who sought to turn the baser metals into 

 gold. They were evolutionists, had they known 

 it. Later generations laughed at them, and said: 

 "Oh no; you cannot transmute one element into 

 another, for each has its own kind of atom; and 

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