The Experiments of Ramsay 



existence through atomic disintegration. How- 

 ever, we have hitherto succeeded in influencing 

 the elements only in one direction, passing from 

 the heavier to the lighter atoms. It has always 

 been easier to demolish than to rebuild, and 

 knowing the tremendous display of energy re- 

 quired for demolishing we may fancy what will 

 be required for reversing the process, for making, 

 let us say, gold out of copper. 



It is a remarkable fact that the heaviest 

 elements should be also the most unstable (the 

 only ones which disintegrate spontaneously 

 occupy the last line of Mendeleeff's table), and 

 that the others decompose invariably into 

 lighter bodies than themselves. Classical 

 chemistry had already accustomed us to this 

 notion, that the more complex compounds, whose 

 molecules are precisely the heaviest, are, at the 

 same time, the most unstable; those which are 

 present in living beings, and are extremely com- 

 plicated, seem even incapable of existing in a 

 state of equilibrium; they are so intimately 

 associated with life that they evolve with it 

 continually. Thus a chemistry of the elements 

 seems to be growing up on the model of the 



E 85 



