114 CONCEPTION OF THE CHEMICAL ELEMENT 



This, taken in conjunction with the atomic 

 character of radioactivity, recognised by Mme. 

 Curie from the start, and with the fact that the law 

 of radioactive change proved to be the same as the 

 law of unimolecular reaction, made the conclusion 

 that the radio-elements were undergoing a series of 

 successive changes, in which new elements are pro- 

 duced, of chemical and physical character totally 

 distinct from those of the parent element, the only 

 one capable of explaining the facts. 



Novel and unexpected as it was to find transmu- 

 tation spontaneously in progress among the radio- 

 elements, the phenomena this explanation explained 

 were equally novel and transcended what to a 

 generation ago would have appeared to be the limits 

 of the physically possible. 



It is to pay chemistry a poor compliment to 

 represent this conclusion as in any way contrary to 

 the established foundations of chemistry. If it had 

 not been for the correct conception of the nature of 

 chemical change, the clear distinction between atoms 

 and molecules, and the conclusion that in all changes 

 in matter hitherto studied the element and the atom 

 of the element remain essentially unchanged, which 

 we owe to the founders of chemistry, the character 

 of radioactivity would not have been arrived at so 

 quickly. On the other hand, if radioactivity had 

 not been almost instantly recognised as a case of 

 spontaneous transmutation, then, if you will, there 

 would have been something radically wrong with 

 chemistry and the training it affords in the elucida- 

 tion of the metamorphoses of matter. 



With regard, however, to the various claims that 

 have been made since, that transmutational changes 

 can be artificially effected by the aid of the electric 

 discharge in gases or the rays from radium, I have 

 always regarded the evidence in this field as capable 



