SH THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



will be formed, wliich will emit light and admit of 

 being blown about. They will last for some time 

 unless they are exposed to the excessive influence 

 of the cathode rays, as they would cause them to 

 radiate too intensely and therefore give up their 

 energy in a much shorter time. 



It is not improbable that some of the cathode rays, 

 when they have acquired a sufl&cient velocity under 

 the electromotive force, produce both the stable and 

 unstable ionisation, and that others act as nuclei 

 round which agglomeration takes place and which 

 thus facilitates the necessary interchange between 

 the charges on the unstable ions. 



We have already seen that in phosphorescent 

 liquids it is probably the positive ion that plays the 

 important part in the luminosity. It seems probable 

 also that it is the positive oxygen atom that plays 

 the important part in the luminosity of gases. As 

 we have seen, oxygen behaves as if it were the 

 carrier of electricity at the boundary of the dark 

 space in nitrogen containing a trace of oxygen ; as 

 well as in air, nitric oxide, and oxygen. Moreover, 

 the fact that water vapour also performs a by no 

 means unimportant part in the passage of electricity 

 through gases suggests the formation of the unstable 

 compound hydrogen peroxide, H2O2. We shall 

 consider this point more fully when we come to 

 examine the conditions which give rise to the glow 

 of the vapour of phosphorus. 



Thomson {Proc. Roy. Soc, vol. i., viii., p, 244) 

 has inferred from experiments on the spectrum of 



