70 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



or proto-elements, can separate from one 

 another, or diffuse out as the chemist terms it. 



The next experimental stage required 

 terrestrially is some mechanism to separate 

 the proto-elements while the sparking is in 

 progress in the vacuum tube. If a magnetic 

 or electric field could be utilized to deflect 

 one constituent in one direction and the 

 other in the opposite, as can be done at 

 present with the alpha and beta particles, 

 a whole series of brilliant advances would be 

 made. 



There is little doubt that in time this 

 advance will come and that the chemistry 

 of the future will realize the dream of the 

 alchemist and succeed in transmuting one 

 element into another. Electrical energy will, 

 in all probability, take on the r61e of the 

 philosopher's stone, though at first artificial 

 gold, as artificial diamonds are nowadays, 

 may be more expensive than natural gold. 



The glut of gold does not, however, dim 

 the vision of the modern thinker ; he sees 

 higher and more glorious things than this, and 

 is more concerned with matter and energy at 

 more primeval stages, with the history of 

 worlds in the making, with the splendid 

 continuity of nature, and the entrancing 

 romance of how life came upon earth, and 



