Annual Address by the President. 
17 
constitute an atom of oxygen. That some 10,000 of them go to form 
an atom of sodium, about 100,000 an atom of barium, and 100,000 
an atom of radium. 
“On this view all elements would be regarded as different group- 
ings of one fundamental constituent. Of all the groupings possible, 
doubtless most are so unstable as never to be formed; but some are 
stable, and these stabler groupings constitute the chemical elements 
that we know. The fundamental ingredient of which, on this view, the 
whole of matter is made up, is nothing more or less than electricity, 
in the form of an equal number of positive and negative electric 
charges. 
“This, when established, will be a unification of matter such as 
has through all the ages been sought; it goes further than had been 
hoped, for the substratum is not an unknown and hypothetical pro- 
tyle, but the familiar electric charge.” 7 
And having gone thus far, we cannot escape going farther. For 
two or more atoms, properly related, form molecules; these groups 
of forces form, on the one hand, the masses of inorganic matter 
presented to sense, and on the other living cells; and the last, in 
turn, organize themselves into living, and ultimately into conscious 
and rational beings, who, in the last resort, are vastly complicated 
activities, aware of, and, in a measure, controlling their own intri- 
cate interplay. 
To an active imagination the dynamic theory opens up fields 
fascinating to contemplate. Look first at the practical side. Aside 
from energy of position and molar motion, we are accustomed to 
think of heat and other forms of chemical energy as the only ones 
available for human use. But Wetham tells us that, As a mean value, 
we may say, that in mechanical units, the energy available for radia- 
tion in one ounce of radium is sufficient to raise a weight of something 
like ten thousand tons one mile high. ’ ’ And later that, ‘ ‘ The energy 
liberated by a given amount of radio-active change * * is at least 
500,000 times, and maybe 10,000,000 times, greater than that in- 
volved in the most energetic chemical action known.” 8 Admitting 
that our coal measures and iron mines may soon give out, it is evi- 
dent that the present generation need not feel greatly alarmed. For 
who will deny to ingenious man the ability to harness these literally 
stupendous new forces as he has their weaker predecessors? 
And on the theoretical side the gain is no less great. A respectable 
hypothesis, which experimental, and even laboratory methods can 
test, correct, and enlarge, as growing experience demands, can, even 
7 Loc. cit. 
8 The Recent Developments of Physical Science. 
