76 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



only the disruption of an atom, but its transfor- 

 mation into other atoms ! 



It maybe remarked that various unstable residues 

 are formed before the stable residue, lead ; and that 

 the breaking down of the radium is so slow that it 

 takes more than fourteen hundred years to convert 

 half of any given quantity of radium into lead. 



Another very remarkable fact has been recently 

 discovered with regard to the transmutation of 

 radium. It has been found that when the radium 

 emanation (one of the intermediate products of 

 radium) is dissolved in water, not helium, but 

 another gas, neoUy is formed ; and that when the 

 emanation is dissolved in a copper solution, still a 

 third gas, argon^ is formed. 



It would seem, accordingly, that not only are 

 atoms evolved, but that various atoms are formed, 

 of which only the fittest survive, and that the atom 

 evolved depends to some extent on environment. 



