THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



The extraordinary properties possessed by the na- 

 tive ores of Uranium, its salts, and possibly some new 

 elements that are associated therewith, offer pheno- 

 mena that are unexplainable. They emit spontaneously 

 and continuously phosphorescent rays in many ways 

 similar to the Kathode rays. They blacken the sen- 

 sitized photographic plate ; possess the power of fluor- 

 escence and of penetrating through solid matter, 

 though in a less degree than that of the Rontgen 

 rays. No discoverable chemical change in their com- 

 position and no apparent loss of weight has been de- 

 tected. The are in every way an anomaly. It may 

 be that Uranium, and possibly some element asso- 

 ciated therewith in its native ores, possess as extra- 

 ordinary relations to radiant light, apart from all 

 changes in chemical constitution, as metallic iron does 

 in respect to electricity. Though long acquaintance 

 has made us familiar with the phenomena of per- 

 manent magnetism in a Horseshoe or other Magnet, 

 yet the cause thereof is unexplainable. 



As science has established the doctrine of the inde- 

 structibility of matter, so it has demonstrated the in- 

 destructibility of energy. No human power can create 

 it, nor can human means destroy it. The permanence 

 of energy and the correlation of forces have ceased to 

 be theories. They are now the axioms upon which our 

 philosophy is built, and the foundation upon which 



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