EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



evolution in process even in the atom, which the 

 distinguished physicist of a generation ago felt 

 himself justified in describing as bearing upon it 

 the stamp of the "manufactured article." Not 

 manufactured, but evolved. 



We must reject, then, the idea of elements. 

 "What is an element?" Sir William Ramsay has 

 lately been asking ; and, indeed, it is not now possible 

 to frame any definition worth having. We must 

 not imagine that radioactivity or atomic evolution 

 is confined to radium and its allies. It is probably 

 an attribute of all atoms, though their .rate of 

 change varies within incalculable limits. If, in- 

 deed, we were compelled to offer some definition 

 of an element say, radium as compared with 

 a compound say, chloride of radium we might 

 say that a compound is a substance which the 

 chemist can decompose, whereas an element is a 

 substance the decomposition of which he cannot 

 effect, but can observe. But it would be dangerous 

 to say that man cannot hope ever to control atomic 

 evolution. He may learn to do so, and to trans- 

 mute one "element" into another to suit his own 

 convenience ; much as he can breed new varieties 

 of dog or pigeon. The practical aspects of the 

 matter are, however, relatively unimportant; its 

 cardinal significance is that atomic evolution has 

 taken by assault what might reasonably have 

 been supposed to be the most redoubtable strong- 

 hold of the creationists. Whether any other re- 

 mains to them to-day I venture to doubt. 

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