OLD AND NEW ALCHEMY 267 



to the verge of evanescence. What we call electrons, in 

 short, our scientific ancestors designated "protyle" con- 

 ceived of as "potentially all things, and actually noth- 

 ing." 1 Modern protyle has, however, been captured, and 

 can be generated at will by the agency of electricity. No 

 longer a metaphysical abstraction, it advances definite 

 claims to a concrete if incomprehensible existence. 



Elemental evolution, in its only cognizable form, inverts 

 the course of organic evolution. For an ascent from 

 homogeneity toward heterogeneity, it substitutes progress 

 by degradation. Complex atoms are continually getting 

 reduced to a more simple state through the shedding of 

 their component electrons. Moreover, the shed electrons 

 for the most part reconstitute themselves into systems, and 

 enter upon independent atomic careers. That is to say, 

 there result, as the permanent products of radio-active 

 change, a metal of inferior atomic weight to the metal 

 partially decomposed, and a gas. Now the gas has been 

 identified by its spectrum as helium, so named by Sir 

 Norman Lockyer in 1869, because of its abundant presence 

 near the sun. Until 1895, when Sir William Ramsay made 

 its hiding-place in clevite too hot to hold it, this singular 

 substance was a mere cosmic acquaintance. The twelve 

 years since elapsed, however, have sufficed to make its prop- 

 erties familiar. They are chiefly negative. It has no 

 chemical affinities ; a " rogue ' ' element, it exists in isolation 

 or imprisonment ; it only slightly refracts light ; it is elec- 

 trically neutral ; it remains obstinately aeriform at tempera- 

 tures much below the boiling-point of hydrogen. Although 

 of extreme terrestrial scarcity, its effusion is an unfailing 

 concomitant of atomic decay, and from radium in partic- 

 ular, has been proved to go on without let or hindrance. 

 The atoms of helium are thus framed under our eyes. We 

 can watch an element in the making. But the process is 

 usually far more leisurely. The evolution of metals is 

 largely a matter of inference. It goes forward too slowly 

 ^Fowler's Novum Organum, page 339, note 13. 



