The Experiments of Ramsay 



same order ; a solution of thorium nitrate left to 

 itself in a closed vessel gives off continuously car- 

 bonic acid gas. The carbon seems to appear here 

 as a new element. However, Ramsay is awaiting, 

 before asserting it, the result of determinations 

 now being carried out. 



All these experiments are sure to be carefully 

 checked. Let us therefore accept with this 

 reservation the new facts. Mendeldeff's periodi- 

 cal classification enables us, according to 

 Ramsay's views, to arrange them at least pro- 

 visionally. When the emanation, which for us 

 is a gas of the helium family, is left to itself its 

 atom, which is heavy and charged with energy, 

 bursts like a bomb and is reduced to its elements. 

 From it helium is formed, the first term of the 

 series. If, on the contrary, the emanation is 

 placed in contact with other bodies, part of its 

 energy of disintegration is applied to them; in 

 contact with water the emanation splits into 

 larger particles than before, and the second term 

 of the series, neon, is obtained. If, finally, the 

 emanation is placed in contact with a copper salt 

 the copper is reduced to one of the less heavy 

 forms of its own group, that is to say, to lithium, 



83 



