The Experiments of Ramsay 



thrusting itself forward so insistently that it can 

 no longer be ignored, but forces us to realise that 

 a revolution is at hand in our chemical doctrines, 

 just at the moment when they seemed more 

 firmly established than ever. 



Fontenelle was in the habit of saying : " When 

 a theory seems probable you may be sure that it 

 is false! " This is not a mere sally of a dis- 

 abused theorist ; the truth regarding the outside 

 world is reached by successive steps, and as 

 each one is surmounted the aspect of the universe 

 becomes enlarged and modified. To-day the 

 great English chemist, Sir William Ramsay, 

 leads us up to a new level, and we must strive to 

 understand how the new panorama is a develop- 

 ment and a continuation of the one to which we 

 were accustomed. 



Before thinking of transmuting bodies, it is 

 necessary first of all to provide each of them 

 with a distinctive docket, enabling it to be recog- 

 nised by indisputable characteristics; this is 

 exactly what was wanting to make the work of 

 the alchemists of real use. For them everything 

 heavy, bright and yellow was gold; this explains 

 all their confusions. The great effort of modern 



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