ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTS. 131 



last year, the element can hardly be considered scarce in any other sense 

 of the word. It has the remarkable property of being found just when- 

 ever the demand for it increases, and the providential character of this 

 behaviour makes me suspect that a law similar to that regulating the 

 scarcity of radium is in question. If this turns out to be well founded, 

 the theory of currency will be reduced to a branch of physics. We may 

 anticipate a more scientific system of currency being devised than the 

 present, which in 1 904 cost the world from fifty to a hundred million 

 pounds value thrown away in the unproductive labour of maintaining the 

 gold and silver currency. 



So far only what may be termed passive lines of investigation have been 

 considered where processes of spontaneous evolution are supposed to be 

 taking place. There is no evidence whatever that any of the known pro- 

 cesses can be in any way artificially influenced. If such were possible it 

 would be tantamount to an artificial transmutation. But at least we know 

 the lines along which even this more ambitious attempt might have a chance 

 of success. The matter in question should be as minute in quantity, and 

 the energy acting upon it as intense, as possible. These conditions are 

 realised in the case of the residue of gas left in an X-ray bulb through 

 which large amounts of electrical energy of great intensity are passed. 

 The idea has long been held that possibly in these bulbs the disappearance 

 of the gas with use, resulting in the gradual improvement of the vacuum 

 so well known to the X-ray operator, may be due to a real transmutation 

 or resolution of the gas under the drastic treatment to which it is 

 exposed. But no experiments have been published, so far as I am aware, 

 along these lines, and the whole subject has not yet advanced beyond the 

 speculative stage. 



It remains to be seen whether the lines of investigation here sketched 

 will bear fruit. With the problem of artificial transmutation is linked 

 that of the ultimate utilisation of the internal energy of elements, the 

 solution of which would change our destiny. The importance of the 

 problem cannot be questioned, but its magnitude is reflected in the 

 difliculties which beset its investigation. To control natural phenomena 

 we must first learn how to imitate them, and this is only possible when 

 an intimate knowledge of the underlying laws has been attained. It 

 may well be that the single life of the individual and the limited 

 resources at his command must be replaced by an organised assault on 

 the part of institutions equipped for the purpose where continuity of 

 purpose can be secured and experiments on a large scale performed. 



Magnetic Survey of Soidh Africa. — Preliminary Report of the Com- 

 mittee, consisting of Sir David Gill {Chairman), Professor J. C. 

 Beattie (Secretary), Mr. S. S. Hough, Professor Morrison, a7ui 

 Professor A. Schuster, appointed to continue the Magnetic Survey 

 of South Africa commenced by Professors Beattie and Morrison, 



Observations were taken at twenty-two stations in the Transkei, and ab 

 three stations in Bechuanaland. The observations at Mafeking, one of 

 the Bechuanaland stations, extended over four days, and the results 



K 2 



