Chemistry and Physics. 451 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1, The Transmutation of Elements. — The alchemistic ideas of 

 transmutation were apparently overthrown completely by the 

 development of modern chemistry, until a few years ago, when 

 it was found that the radio-active elements spontaneously decom- 

 pose with the formation of helium and other elements. Sir 

 William Ramsay and Soddy were the first to prove that helium 

 is produced by radium, and since that time Ramsay has announced 

 several transmutations of elements under the influence of the 

 radium emanation, such as the production of lithium from cop- 

 per, of carbon from silicon and thorium, and of neon from water. 

 These alleged transmutations have been received with much incre- 

 dulity by chemists and physicists, and it appears that the copper- 

 lithium transformation has been shown to be without foundation 

 by Madame Curie. 



New developments have been made recently in the direction of 

 apparent transmutation. At a meeting of the London Chemical 

 Society, on Feb. 6, 1913, Sir William Ramsay read a paper on 

 " The presence of helium in the gas from the interior of an X-ray 

 tube," in which he states that there is no doubt that old X-ra}^ bulbs 

 contain helium, and he attributes its presence to its formation by 

 the action of the electric discharge. There is room for doubt in 

 regard to transmutation, but there seems to be no doubt that 

 remarkable phenomena take place in the X-ray bulb, for at the 

 same meeting Prof. J. Norman Collie and Mr. H. Patterson 

 presented a paper on " The presence of neon in hydrogen after 

 the passage of the electric discharge through hydrogen at low 

 pressure." These two investigators had started their work inde- 

 pendently from different points of view, and had collaborated when 

 they found that they were getting the same results. Professor 

 Collie had subjected fluorspar to the electric discharge with the 

 hope of decomposing fluorine, and from the first experiments 

 helium appeared to be formed in the bulb, while subsequent 

 experiments showed the presence of neon. Further investigation 

 showed the same result when calcium chloride and when glass 

 wool were used, and finally even when the discharge was passed 

 in the bare glass tube. Mr. Patterson started with the idea that 

 the acticn of the discharge might change hydrogen to helium, but 

 upon trying this he found neon. Then he filled his apparatus with 

 pure oxygen, and upon pumping it out obtained the same result. 

 He then surrounded his experiment tube with another containing 

 neon, in order to find if this gas could penetrate the glass walls of 

 the inner tube under the influence of the discharge, but obtained 

 about the same result as w 7 ith ordinary air. A similar experiment 

 was made with helium with negative results. Lastly he used the 



