The Groundwork of the Universe, Sec. 55 



The discovery of the X-rays, with all their modern applica- 

 tions to medical and surgical problems, arose directly from Sir 

 William Crookes' desire to know what results follow fi'om the 

 evacuation of tubes to a higher degree than had ever been tried 

 before. The whole investigation of radium therapy arose from 

 Becquerel's study of the uranium salts, again a problem of a purely 

 scientific nature, seeming then to have no practical bearing. The 

 self-luminous compass, serving to guide our airmen in their night 

 flying, and to permit our battleships to cruise in the darkness 

 without showing a light, was the result of Sir William Crookes' 

 invention of the spinthariscope, designed to make visible the 

 impact of the alpha particles by their action on zinc suli)hide. 



The search of knowledge for its own sake and without 

 ulterior motives actually lays the foundation for the most 

 unexpected and valuable practical applications. No applied 

 chemist would ever have dreamed of searching for a radio-active 

 material before Becquerel's discovery, nor would he have thought 

 of devising an apparatus by means of which the bones of the 

 living hand could be examined, until the X-rays were actually 

 discovered in a laboratory. 



The Avords of Huxley are tnie to day as when spoken, " I 

 would make accessible the highest and most' complete training 

 the country could afford. Whatever might be the cost, depend 

 upon it the investment would be a good one. I weigh my words 

 when I say that, if the nation could purchase a potential Watt, 

 or Davj', or Faraday, at a cost of a hundred thousand pounds down, 

 he would be dirt cheap at the money. It is a mere commonplace 

 and every day piece of knowledge that what these three men 

 did has produced untold millions of wealth, in the narroAvest 

 economical use of the word." 



With this in view it is right to acknowledge with gratitude 

 the generosity of Mr. F. A. Heron, who has presented to the 

 Queen's University a most munificent gift for the proper equipment 

 of a department for Physical Chemistry, and has thus enabled 

 the University to furnish Ulster students with a training in this 



