312 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



atom and a negatively charged hydrogen one, as 

 the passage of a discharge through the gas ought 

 to produce an equal number of positively and 

 negatively charged atoms of both substances. 



It has been shown that when condensation of the 

 gas takes place on the walls of the vacuum tube 

 the interchange of carriers is facilitated, as also 

 when a foreign substance is present in the gas, the 

 molecules of which would act as nuclei, and again 

 enhance the possibility of the interchange of charges 

 to take place. 



We have, in fact, a certain amount of energy 

 stored up in a gas by the passage of a discharge 

 through it, and in solids and liquids by the 

 other sources that [give rise to phosphorescence : 

 by Entladungstrahlen, ultra-violet light, Becquerel 

 rays, Eontgen rays, cathode rays, or by the radia- 

 tion from radio-active substances similar to cathode 

 rays. 



Professor J. J. Thomson has illustrated by a 

 gyrostatic model (loc. cit.) the behaviour of an 

 atom, according as the charge which it carries is 

 or is not the one for which it has a specific attrac- 

 tion. He has shown that the internal potential 

 energy of a hydrogen atom is greater when it has 

 a negative charge than when it has a positive one ; 

 and conversely that that of an oxygen atom will be 

 greater when it carries a positive than when it 

 carries a negative charge. He also deduces from 

 this that forces will be brought into play between 

 charged atoms placed very close together, in addi- 



