500 THE RARER METALS AND THEIR ALLOYS. 



world; we borrow its definitions, and apply them to our metals. Thus 

 nobility in metals as in men, means freedom from liability to tarnish, 

 and we know that the rarer metals are like rarer virtues, and have 

 singular power in enduring their more ordinary associates with firmness, 

 elasticity, strength, and endurance. On the other hand, some of the 

 less known metals appear to be mere " things " which do not exist for 

 themselves, but only for the sake of other metals to which they can be 

 united. This may, however, only seem to be the case because we as 

 yet know so little about them. The question naturally arises, how can 

 the analogies between organic and inorganic bodies now be traced! I 

 agree with my colleague at the Jilcole des Mines of Paris, Prof. Urbain 

 Le Verrier, in thinking that it is possible 1 to study the biology, the 

 anatomy, and even the pathology of metals. 



The anatomy of metals — that is, their structure and framework — 

 is best examined by the aid of the microscope, but if we wish to study 

 the biology and pathology of metals, the method of autographic pyrom- 

 etry, which I brought before you in a Friday evening lecture delivered 

 in 1892, will render admirable service, for, just as in biological and 

 pathological phenomena vital functions and changes of tissue are accom- 

 panied by a rise or fall in temperature, so molecular changes in metals 

 are attended with an evolution or absorption of heat. With the aid of 

 the recording pyrometer we now " take the temperature" of a mass of 

 metal or alloy in which molecular disturbance is suspected to lurk, as 

 surely as a doctor does that of a patient in whom febrile symptoms 

 are manifest. 



It has, moreover, long been known that we can submit a metal or an 

 alloy in its normal state to severe stress, record its power of endurance, 

 and then, by allowing it to recover from fatigue, enable it to regain 

 some, at least, of its original strength. The human analogies of metals 

 are really very close indeed, for, as is the case with our own mental 

 efforts, the internal molecular work which is done in metals often 

 strengthens and invigorates them. Certain metals have a double exist- 

 ence, and according to circumstances, their behavior maybe absolutely 

 harmful or entirely beneficial. The dualism we so often recognize in 

 human life becomes allotropism in metals, and they, strangely enough, 

 seem to be restricted to a single form of existence if they are absolutely 

 free from contamination, for probably an absolutely pure metal can not 

 pass from a normal to an allotropic state. Last, it may be claimed that 

 some metals possess attributes which are closely allied to moral quali- 

 ties, for, in their relations with other elements, they often display an 

 amount of discrimination and restraint that would do credit to sentient 

 beings. 



Close as this resemblance is, I am far from attributing consciousness 

 to metals, as their atomic changes result troin the action of external 

 agents, while the conduct of conscious beings is not determined from 



La M6tallurgie en France, 1894, page 2. 



