82 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[May, 1904. 



rate, undeniable that the cIclUil.lI relations of matter 

 become more intimate as our analysis of its constitution 

 goes deeper. Ether, electricity, matter, all seem to merge 

 together in the limit; their distinctions ultimately evade 

 definition. So animal and vegetable life appear to coalesce 

 in their incipient stages, and de\elop their inherent differ- 

 ences with ad\ance towards a higher perfection. 



The various branches of inorganic nature, too, possibly 

 spring from a common stock. C)ur powers of discrimina- 

 tion fail to separate them as we trace themdownward ; 

 but that may he because of the inadequacy ofthe guidirg 

 principles at our command. A larger synthesis is de- 

 manded for the harmonising of multitudinous facts, at 

 present grouped incongruously, or left in baffling isola- 

 tion, and it is rendered increasingly difficult of attainment 

 by the continual growth of specialisation. Year by year 

 details accumulate, and the strain of keeping them under 

 mental command becomes heavier ; yet what can be 

 known must, in its essentials, be known as a preliminary 

 to extending the reign of recognised law in Nature. 



Sooner or later, however, the wealth of novel expe- 

 rience recently acquired will doubtless be turned to the 

 fullest account. Just now, we can grasp only tentatively 

 its far-reaching implications. They have a very im- 

 portant bearing on the hoary problem of the genesis of 

 visible things. The (juestions of what matter is, and of 

 how it came to be, have been cleared of some of the 

 metaphysical cobwebs involving them ah aniiquo, and 

 insistently crave definite treatment by exact methods. 

 We should, indeed, vainly aspire to reach — or to com- 

 prehend, even if we could reach — an absolute beginning. 

 To quote Clerk Maxwell's words : " Science," * he wrote, 

 "is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter 

 itself out of nothing. We have reached the utmost limit 

 of our thinking faculties when we have admitted that, 

 because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent it 

 must have been created." The discovery that atoms 

 disintegrate into corpuscles does not then bring us any 

 nearer to the heart of the mystery ; but it is eminently 

 suggestive as regards secondary processes. 



Acquaintance with ultra-atomic matter, begun within 

 the narrow precincts of " Crookes' tubes," has advanced 

 rapidly since " radiology " took its place among the 

 sciences. For, from the time when Becquerel first saw 

 a plate darkened by the photogenic projectiles of 

 uranium, and Madame Curie sifted radium from the 

 refuse of the mines of Joachimsthal, the lines of proof 

 steadily converged towards the conclusion that chemical 

 atoms are not only divisible, but that their decay pro- 

 gresses spontaneously, irresistibly, in fire, air, earth, and 

 water, as part of the regular economy of Nature. To 

 explain further. Radio active bodies are composed — 

 according to Rutherford's plausible hypothesis — of atoms 

 in unstable equilibrium. The gradual changes incidental 

 to their own internal activities suffice to bring about 

 their disruption. And their explosi\'e character is ob- 

 viously connected with their unwieldy size, since 

 uranium, thorium, and radium, the three substances pre- 

 eminent for ladio-activity, possess the highest atomic 

 weights known to chemistry. The precarious balance, 

 then, of each of these complex, though infinitesimally 

 small, systems is successively overthrown, regardless of 

 external conditions or environment, their constituent 

 parts being hurled abroad with .the evolution of an 

 almost incredible amount of energy. Their products 

 include cathode-rays; matter in the "fourth state," 

 matter a thousand times finer than hydrogen, is ejected 

 in torrents from the self-pulverised atoms of radium. 



* Ency. Brit., ait. Atom. 



Moreover, the issuing rays are equivalent to currents of 

 negative electricity. Each corpuscle bears with it an 

 electron, or is itself an electron ; for the choice between 

 the alternatives is open. In either case, we are con- 

 fronted with matter apparently in its ultimate form ; and 

 to that form ordinary, substantial bodies tend to become 

 reduced. Electrons may fairly be called ubiquitous. 

 They occur in flames, near all very hot masses, wherever 

 ultra-violet light impinges on a metallic surface" ; they 

 are freely generated by Rcintgen and cathode rays ; they 

 are the agents of electrical transmission in conductors. 

 Everywhere throughout the universe, then, atoms are in 

 course of degradation into corpuscles. But no informa- 

 tion is at hand as to the scene or mode of their reconsti- 

 tution. The waste and decay are patent ; the processes 

 of compensation remain buried in obscurity. Indeed, 

 Sir William Crookes anticipates the complete submer- 

 gence, at some indefinitely remote epoch, of material 

 substance in Protyle, the " formless mist " of chaos. He 

 assumes an identity between the past state and the future, 

 leaving, however, the present unexplained. The break- 

 up of matter, in fact, does not render its construction the 

 more intelligible. Running-down is an operation of a 

 different order from winding-up. It is an expenditure of 

 a reser\e of force. It needs no effort; it accomplishes 

 itself. But to create the reser\-e for expenditure demands 

 foresight and deliberate exertion ; it implies a designed 

 application of power. Now each atom is a store-house 

 of energy representing the force primitively applied to 

 reduce some thousands of free electrons to the bondage 

 of a harmoniously working system. Its disruption is 

 accompanied by the dissipation of the energy previously 

 accumulated in it ; and that atomic systems are not cal- 

 culated for indefinite endurance is one of the most sur- 

 prising of modern discoveries. The secret of their 

 original construction is, nevertheless, still impenetrable. 

 That they are composed of Protyle — that their clustering 

 members are corpuscles moving under strong mechanical 

 control — is more than probable. And the law of order 

 adumbrated by what are called the " periodic " relations 

 of the chemical elements shows that their concourse was 

 very far from being fortuitous. But beyond this point, 

 there is no holding-ground for definite thought. \\'e are 

 ignorant, too, whether the process of building matter out 

 of Protyle is at present going on, or was completed once 

 for all in the abysmal fore-time, decay being now defini- 

 tive. Nor is it likely that we shall e\er succeed in cap- 

 turing with recognition a brand-new atom freshly minted 

 for cosmical circulation. 



' Fleming, P/Df. A'l^ii/ /«s///H(f, Vol XVII., p. 169. 



A Free Public Reference Library, having distincti\e charac- 

 teristics, is in course of formation by the London County 

 Council at the Horniraan Museum, Forest Hiil. The primary 

 intention is to encouratje the study of Geology and the biolo- 

 gical sciences (Botany, Zoology, and Anthropology') — especi- 

 ally as represented in the Horninian Museum collections — by 

 providing the best books on these subjects, more particularly 

 the works of admitted authority which, by reason of cost and 

 a relatively small demand, are not ordinarily found in libraries 

 freely accessible to the general public. Although undue im- 

 portance is not attached to merely descriptive works, a dis- 

 tinctive feature of the library is the prominence given to the 

 special books necessary to a detailed study of any section of 

 the Archa-ology or the Natural History of the British Islands. 

 Text-books. manuaL, and monographs are supplemented by 

 works on the theoretical aspects of every branch of science 

 with which the library is concerned, and books designed to 

 stimulate individual observation and inquiry, including the 

 most recent manuals, British and American, of " nature- 

 study," are liberally provided. 



