December 14, 1905J 



NA TURE 



151 



refers to the more highly placed relatives of the newly 

 elected King of Norway. 



Haakon I'll., King of Norway (b. 1S72). 

 y"a ls Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark 



(b. 1843). 

 fa ls fa Christian IX., King of Denmark. 



/a ls />/v., George I., King of the Hellenes (b. 1845). 



A7 ls .«'., Dagmar, widow of Alexander III., Tsar of 



Russia, who d. 1894- 

 fa u st 2 son t Nicholas II., Tsar of Russia (b. 1868). 

 fa ls sz\ Alexandra, Queen of England (b. 1844). 



fa ls si\ son i George, Prince of Wales (b. 1865). 

 t'a ls st x da.. aKo wife. Princess Maud (b. 1869) of 



England. 

 The formula; are to be read thus : — " his (the K. of 

 Norway's) father is the 1st (eldest) son, and is Frederick, 

 C.P. of Denmark ; " his (the K. of Norway's) father's 

 father is Christian IX."; . . . "his father's 2nd sister's 

 1st son is Nicholas II."; ■ ■ • "his father's 1st sister's 

 3rd daughter, who is also his (the K. of Norway's) wife, 

 is the Princess Maud." These foot-figures need not inter- 

 fere with the simplicity of the general effect, while they 

 enable a great deal of additional information to be included. 



Francis Galton. 



Atomic Disintegration and the Distribution of the 

 Elements. 



Mr. Donald Murray's letter (p. 125) deals with a sub- 

 ject which I have been attempting, now for more than a 

 year, to attack experimentally. A similar experience to 

 that which Mr. Murray describes as the experience of a 

 lifetime occurred to me eighteen months ago in a visit to 

 the gold mines of Western Australia. Since then my 

 thoughts have been less concerned with the radio-elements 

 than with those like gold, platinum, thallium, indium, &c, 

 which resemble radium in the minuteness and approximate 

 constancy of the proportion in which they occur in nature. 



It is wonderful to reflect that mankind for thousands of 

 years has been passionately and determinedly engaged in 

 the search for gold, not on account mainly of its useful 

 qualities, but on account of its comparative scarcity. The 

 history of gold-getting presents a strange uniformity. The 

 search has been rewarded always with about the same 

 qualified measure of success, never with such success that 

 the value of gold has seriously depreciated. The common 

 saying that about the same amount of gold has to be put 

 into the earth in order to dig it out holds an economic and 

 probably a scientific truth. For may we not consider that 

 the history of these centuries of search, carried on with a 

 tenacity of purpose and a continuity approached in the case 

 of no other element, shows clearly that a natural law is 

 here involved no less than in the case of radium or 

 polonium? The history of gold-getting appears to be sub- 

 stantially the same in all countries in all times. We have 

 the initial prospecting in which the chances and difficulties 

 are so great that only the most adventurous attempt it ; 

 the discovery of surface gold and the rush from all parts 

 of the earth ; the phenomenal finds and the invariably much 

 greater proportion of failure ; the tracing of the gold to its 

 source and the discovery of some cubic acres, or it may 

 be miles, of gold-bearing earth. Then at first only the 

 deposits averaging several ounces to the ton are thought 

 worthy of attention ; but these rapidly give out, and atten- 

 tion is directed to the poorer and still poorer veins, while 

 at the same time the steady progress and evolution of the 

 pioneer camp, where often gold seems to be commoner than 

 water, into the civilised community served with railways, 

 electric power, and often elaborate water supply, cheapens 

 the cost of extraction to such an extent that deposits 

 averaging only a few grains to the ton can be made to 

 yield a profit. Finally, we have the same inevitable end 

 when science and organisation have done all in their 

 power, and the remaining ore contains just so much gold 

 as not to pav. 



Let the case be stated a little differently. What would 

 be the effect of the sudden discovery in any one place of 

 some really large quantity of gold? There seems no doubt 

 that utter chaos would ensue in the commercial world, ! 

 which might involve before it was got under control a re- I 

 arrangement of the map of the world. Since nothing of | 



NO. 1885, VOL. JT,~} 



the sort has ever happened, in spite of the most unprece- 

 dented struggles to that end, it is in accord with the 

 principles of natural evolution to conclude that such a 

 contingency probably violates some law of nature. Thus 

 the gentlemen in charge of the national exchequer and of 

 1 In- Hank of England, who on a casual examination appear 

 to be placing the most blind and implicit confidence on the 

 future continuance of the existing order of things, are in 

 reality secure in a fundamental if previously unrecognised 

 law of nature. Eighteen months ago, after my visit to 

 the gold deposits of Western Australia and New Zealand, 

 and by the information which all concerned in the industry 

 so readily placed at my disposal, I became convinced that 

 in all probability gold, like radium, is at once the product 

 of some other parent element, and is itself changing to 

 produce " offspring " elements, so that its quantity, and 

 hence its value, was fixed simply as the ratio of these two 

 rates of change. 



My experiments with gold have been both by the direct 

 and indirect methods. The former have been dogged by 

 misfortune and have so far been without result, while in 

 the indirect experiments on ancient gold the results until 

 now have been conflicting. Certainly some nuggets did not 

 contain helium in appreciable quantities, while in others I 

 did find a minute quantity of helium. This, however, was 

 before the elaborate precautions afterwards employed had 

 been adopted, and as I can now repeat the experiments 

 with certainty as soon as occasion permits I am keeping 

 a quite open mind. On the other hand, I have established 

 to my own satisfaction that helium is an invariable con- 

 stituent of native platinum in all the samples I have tried. 

 The above reasoning, from rarity, after extended search, 

 applies to platinum to a degree only less complete than in 

 the case of gold. 



The experiments with the other elements have not yet 

 been proceeding long enough to have furnished results, but 

 I have made a great many experiments with uranium and 

 thorium in the attempt to detect directly the production of 

 helium from these elements. These elements have been, 

 in fact, the standards, for their rate of change is accurately 

 known, and, assuming with Rutherford that the a particle 

 is an atom of helium, may be expected to yield helium at 

 a known rate. The methods of search have been perfected 

 in the case of these two elements, and I am glad to be 

 able to say that it is now only a question of time and 

 patience before the rate at which helium is being produced 

 from these two elements is accurately measured. On the 

 other hand, if helium is not being produced, the experi- 

 ments will indicate a maximum possible limit of the rate 

 of production (set by the smallest quantity of helium 

 detectable) far below the rate to be expected from theory. 

 This method, which is, of course, applicable to any other 

 element, would detect any other gas of the argon-helium 

 family if produced. So far, however, I have only had one 

 completely successful experiment with each element. In 

 the case of uranium the result was positive, and indicated 

 a rate of production of the same order as that required 

 by theory. In the case of thorium, the experiment was of 

 the nature of a blank test, and it proved that the rate of 

 production is certainly not greater than ten times that 

 required by theory. 



Mr. Murray's letter induces me to put on record these 

 imperfect results, and I do this the more readily as they 

 may perhaps serve to emphasise and support his suggestion 

 that experiments along the lines and on the scale he 

 suggests should be carried out. But what laboratory in 

 England could deal with ten tons of lead over a term of ten 

 years ? 



After a year's work, I confess I am less hopeful than I 

 was of the ability of the individual worker to carry out 

 direct experiments in this subject of atomic disintegration. 

 I wonder if the individual with his humble kilogram and 

 his single lifetime is not starting on an almost forlorn 

 hope, and is unduly and unnecessarily handicapped. Due 

 consideration should be given to the supreme consequences 

 that must follow from successful discoveries in this field. 

 Not only is there to be considered the effect such results 

 must exert on the whole trend of philosophic thought, but 

 certain definite economic problems would be solved. For 

 example, the proof of the disintegration of gold would 

 reduce the doctrine of bimetallism and the theory of 



