1919. | The Sixth Indian Science Congress. CXXili 
A new coefficient of correlation with applications to some 
— and sociological data.—By P. C. Mauwa 
NOB 
Section of Chemistry. 
President :—F. L. Usner, Esa., B.Sc. 
(Presidential Address). 
A ReEvIEwW OF THE EvIDENCE FOR TRANSMUTATION, 
To form a sound and dispassionate judgment on a con- 
troversial matter while the evidence on both sides is still in 
course of production, is a task that requires a rare critical 
faculty to which few can lay claim. Four years have, however, 
elapsed since the last contribution was made to the subject of 
the supposed apices of the elements, and there are 
several reasons why I now venture to offer some remarks on it. 
One is that, a some at least, the contemplation of a little pure 
chemistry will be a welcome. diversion amid the plethora of 
industrial problems that have lately, been our portion ; another 
th 
reason is the great interest which the subject itself must have 
r the chemist, chiefly, perhaps, because “é ao to his 
Sia sinatlees as much as na his intellectual fac 
The evidence for transmutation is of =i sind, observa- 
of the difficultiesin the way of accepting such evidence as may 
be fortheoming 
By observational evidence I mean —. that certain 
elements have appeared as the result of some natural change, 
under circumstances which preclude the possibility of their 
having been imported, ready-made, from another place ; or of 
their having been present unobserved prior to the final obser- 
vation. 
The only observational evidence which we need consider 
at present is, first, that which is based on spectroscopic ex- 
amination of the celestial bodies, and, secondly, that which 
of the phenomena of radioactivity. Few chemists who have 
given any thought to the matter are likely to reject the con- 
clusion that transmutation of the elements—what has been 
nebulae, such a conclusion appears to be inevitable. There is, 
if possible, even less doubt about the degradation of the radio- 
attive elements, which can be observed by the chemist within 
