tor t\\i> till uisaiid \c;n-v. in ;iii alniii^l iiu'diUTiwiMr ;uMi\il\', willi 

 a (liiminitiiiii in nla■^^ nl" only onc-li.ill : in anotlu'i" two lliousand 

 years oiu'-liall' of tlir rcmaiiuk'r, and sn on. Xow this is pure 

 tlioor_\-. of oour-^o, based upon nio->t intricate calculations of 

 molecular, atomic and radioj^raphic data. lUit a f.alse assump- 

 tion at tile •-tart vitiates all calculations. .\'ol)od\ liax ex])erimented 

 with ladium for two thousand years. Xohody has actually 

 demonstrated what they jiut forth as facts. 



For a long ])eriod the most ad\ance(l scientists in the world 

 held to the cori^uscular theory of light. Sir Isaac Newton was 

 an illustrious advocate c^f it. and nobody dared stand against his 

 authority, his masterh- demonstrations and arguments. Never- 

 theless the corpu>cular theory is now discredited and the undu- 

 latory theory lias come into general acceptance. Why should 

 the proponents of radium go l^ack to the dogma of emanations — 

 the corpuscular theory — for an explanation of the phenomena of 

 radio-activity? Would it not be far more reasonable, — even if 

 less astonishing — to assume that there is an arrangement of the 

 ultimate particles of radium which facilitates the flow of natural 

 forces embodied in the universal ether, similar to that outlined 

 for magnetism? Nobody would hold that magnetic action is 

 identical with radio-activity ; but there is a disseverable bona 

 between magnetism and electricity; there is a bond between 

 electricity and radio-activity ; may it not be a fact that radium 

 is a sort of second cousin to the magnet after all? There is 

 a slight magnetic effect in radium ; it influences the south pole ol 

 the compass. At any rate, the idea of an inexhaustible supply 

 of energy in nature flowing through the peculiar channels sup- 

 plied by radium would account much more satisfactorily for the 

 potentiality and long endurance of the new metal than a theory 

 of emanations that does not waste or dissipate the mass, or at 

 least disintegrates it so slowly as to be unbelievable? 



28 



