HYPOTHESIS OF RADIANT MATTER 75 



0.8 mg., an amount which ordinary analysis can detect. We 

 may, therefore, hope that further experiments by Professor 

 Ramsay will throw light upon this side of the subject. 



Of Ramsay's present conclusion, the following resume may 

 be given: Emanation is a gas of about atomic weight 216.5, 

 derived from radium, of atomic weight 225, simultaneously 

 with a-particles which are not helium. When emanation and 

 the a-particles are shut up together, the bombardment of 

 the latter breaks up the emanation into helium; but if heavier 

 molecules, like water, be present, they receive some of the 

 bombardment, and the emanation is only degraded into 

 neon; the pressure of copper nitrate still further protecting 

 the emanation, so that it only breaks down to argon. This 

 kinetic explanation is not impeccable; for, according to the 

 principles of mass-action, the preponderance of water mole- 

 cules in the copper nitrate solution, as well as the predomi- 

 nance of hydrogen and oxygen in its decomposition products, 

 would imply the presence of considerable amounts of neon to 

 accompany the argon. As neon is said to be absent, we must 

 either seek some other hypothesis or explain how the neon 

 reverts to argon after it is once formed. 



Ramsay's views contradict those of Rutherford and others, 

 who seek to identify helium with the a-rays, and the latter 

 would thereby lose a good deal of their substantive character. 

 Furthermore, it is to be noted that the a-particles bear posi- 

 tive charges: if they were merely chemical atoms, such a 

 charge might possibly be obtained as they tore themselves 

 loose from the larger complex, during radiation; but if they 

 be non-substantive masses of free energy, it will be difficult 

 to reconcile the various assumed transformations with the 

 electro-chemical properties, valencies, etc., of the elements 

 in question. 



It must be recalled that Rutherford does assume that the 



