146 



KNOWLEDGE. 



April. 1913. 



Morning Post, will be found in The Chemical News, 1913, 

 CVII, 78. 



As has happened on several previous occasions in science, 

 the same discovery has been independently made by more 

 than one worker, approaching the subject from different points 

 of view. 



The first of these papers, " On the Presence of Helium in 

 the Gases from the Interior of X-ray Tubes," was read by 

 Sir William Ramsay, and was the outcome of his attempts to 

 obtain evidence of chemical transformations effected through 

 the agency of the p-rays given off in the decomposition of 

 radium emanation. With this idea several old X-ray tubes 

 were examined, and in each case helium, neon and argon were 

 found in the gases within them. Possibly this helium was 

 produced by the impact of the rays upon the glass walls of the 

 tubes. As to the neon, its origin was suggested by the fact 

 that on decomposing water by means of radium emanation, 

 neon is produced in proportions indicated by the equation : — 



Helium + Oxygen = Neon. 

 4 16 20 



These experiments of Sir William Ramsay were supple- 

 mented by the second paper on "The Presence of Neon in 

 Hydrogen after passage of an Electric Discharge through 

 Hydrogen at Low Pressures," which embodied results 

 independently obtained by Professor Collie and Mr. H. 

 Patterson. 



In this paper it was shown that when an electric discharge 

 was passed through a vacuum tube containing hydrogen, 

 helium and neon (which could be identified by their spectra), 

 were invariably produced. 



All precautions were taken to exclude the possibility of the 

 introduction of any helium during the experiments, so that 

 the conclusion was justified that there were only two 

 explanations of the phenomenon : — (1) That the hydrogen 

 or elements in the glass or electrodes had been transmuted 

 into helium and neon ; or (2) That the energy of the 

 discharge had created helium and neon from the immaterial 

 ether. 



Mr. Patterson suggested that a possible hypothesis from 

 the purely physical standpoint was that by doubling the 

 electric charge upon the atom of hydrogen it might con- 

 ceivably be converted into a-particles and so into helium. 



When the experiments were repeated, with the tube con- 

 taining hydrogen surrounded by an outer vacuum tube, helium 

 was found in the latter, apparently owing to its diffusion 

 through the glass of the inner tube. On then introducing 

 pure oxygen into the outer tube, neon was obtained, the 

 equation suggesting the same proportions as observed by 

 Sir William Ramsay: — 



Helium + Oxygen = Neon. 



4 16 20 



Hence the conclusion was drawn that if the helium produced 



in the inner tube had sufficient velocity to diffuse into the 



outer tube, it was quite possible for a new element, neon, to be 



formed. 



It is now accepted as a proved fact that the element radium 

 decomposes with the formation of other elements, the simplest 

 of which is apparently helium, and the experiments of Sir 

 William Ramsay have indicated that the energy liberated by 

 radium can effect the transmutation of other elements into 

 one another ; but in such cases man can only watch the 

 changes that go on, and cannot control or vary them. But in 

 the building-up process that has apparently now been dis- 

 covered, the energy for the change is artificially supplied and 

 controlled, and the changes are thus of a different order from 

 the radioactive decompositions of a decaying element. 



To quote the words of Professor Collie — " We are possibly 

 dealing with the primordial form of matter, the primordial atom, 

 which when produced had all the energy necessary for form- 

 ing the world. By combination of these ' atoms ' the atoms 

 of elements could be formed. Possibly the electric current 

 directed the flow of these atoms with the full force of its 

 energy, and with the phenomena of heat and light the 

 elements came into existence," 



GEOLOGY. 



By G. W. Tyrrell, A.R.C.Sc, F.G.S. 



RECENT AMERICAN MEMOIRS.— Geologists in the 

 United States are fortunate in having a large number of 

 periodicals and transactions in which to publish their work ; 

 and, judging from the elaborate and expensively-illustrated 

 memoirs which are constantly being turned out, these 

 societies must have plenty of money to spend. The United 

 States Geological Survey also publishes on a lavish scale. 

 Some recently-issued memoirs are noticed below. 



A "Bibliography of the Geology and Mineralogy of Tin," 

 by F. L. Hess and Eva Hess (Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections, Vol. LVIII, No. 2) is a very elaborate and 

 exhaustive work, containing one thousand seven hundred 

 and one entries. These are principally listed under countries, 

 but subordinate headings are General Bibliography, Mining 

 and Milling, History, Metallurgy, Chemistry, Mineralogy and 

 Statistics. Of the more important papers useful digests have 

 been prepared. An index covering one hundred and sixty- 

 nine pages completes the usefulness of this work. 



" The Early Palaeozoic Bryozoa of the Baltic Provinces," 

 by R. S. Bassler (United States National Museum, Bulletin 

 77) is a memoir of three hundred and eighty-two pages, 

 with thirteen plates and two hundred and twenty-six text- 

 figures. The fossils of the Russian Baltic area, found in 

 almost unconsolidated Lower Palaeozoic strata, are renowned 

 all over the world for their abundance and exquisite state of 

 preservation. This work is as complete a study of the Russian 

 Ordovician Bryozoa as the available collections would allow. 

 A single Cambrian form, the oldest known Bryozoan, is 

 described. A digest of the Lower Palaeozoic geology of 

 Baltic Russia is given, and the Russian beds are correlated 

 with their stratigraphical equivalents in North America. 



For stratigraphers a work of inestimable value is that just 

 issued by the United States Geological Survey under the title 

 " Index to the Stratigraphy of North America" (Professional 

 Paper No. 71). This important publication has been compiled 

 by Bailey Willis and G. W. Stose, and runs to eight hundred 

 and ninety-four pages. The aim is to summarize North 

 American stratigraphy as fully as the data available and the 

 scope of the work permit. The material includes some 

 discussion of stratigraphy, some citations of fossils, and views 

 on correlation. The work is accompanied by a geological 

 map of North America in four sheets, making a wall-map 

 60 X 77 inches, whereon the geology is set out in forty-two 

 colours. In addition the text contains eighteen sketch maps, 

 giving the areal distribution of the combined formations of 

 each system. This is a magnificent piece of work, for which 

 geologists all over the world will be grateful. 



Palaeontologists, likewise, will be grateful to the United 

 States Geological Survey for the publication of Dr. Walcott's 

 monumental monograph on the Cambrian Brachiopoda of the 

 world. This is the crowning achievement of Dr. Walcott's 

 lifelong work on Cambrian rocks and fossils, on which he is 

 the foremost authority. Five hundred and thirty-six species 

 and varieties, grouped in forty-four genera and fifteen sub- 

 genera, are described, along with forty-three Ordovician forms. 

 The great bulk of Cambrian brachiopods are inarticulate, 

 phosphatic-shelled forms, and they attained their maximum of 

 specific differentiation in the Middle Cambrian, where there 

 are thirty-one genera and three hundred and fifty-five species. 

 Even in the Lower Cambrian there are thirty-two genera and 

 one hundred and sixteen species, showing that the Brachiopoda 

 must have originated much farther back in time than the 

 earliest fossiliferous rocks. Dr. Walcott concludes that each 

 species is, in general, confined to one type of sediment, and out 

 of five hundred forms only one hundred and fifty have been 

 found in more than one kind of sediment. The " facies " of 

 the rock, therefore, becomes very important in palaeontology, 

 and especially in zonal stratigraphy. 



A RIEBECKITE ROCK FROM ARRAN— Igneous rocks 

 containing the rare soda-amphibole riebeckite are now known 

 to occur in several British localities. The best known is that 



