12 THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
matter, and that the energy continually developed by the 
Radium is due to the liberation of the energy contained in 
the atom in the form of interatomic vibration of the cor- 
puscles of which the atoms consist. 
This explanation appeared at first to some to be revolu- 
tionary, because it had been held and taught by great 
authorities that the atom was the ultimately minute and 
inseparable portion of matter. Nevertheless, it has been 
thought that a readjustment was necessary, which conceived 
the atoms to be separable into minute, and still further 
separable into minuter, parts; and that the elements (less 
than one hundred in number) resolved for us by the chemists 
must be conceived as complex products derived from fewer 
and simpler radicals, possibly only one. The explanation of 
Professors Rutherford and Soddy, which is growing in 
acceptance, confirms this idea. 
Radium, then, consists of atoms of matter; these atoms 
are built up of corpuscles, and these corpuscles possibly of 
minute granules of matter moving and revolving at a 
tremendous speed ; and some of the corpuscles disintegrate, 
and shoot forth from the atom minute portions of matter at 
enormous speed. 
Here we approach the discovery of what appears to be a 
great truth of far-reaching and immense importance. 
The things that give its character to Radium are the speed, 
weight, and movements of its atoms, corpuscles, and 
granules. 
This is the great truth, and appears to be the key to the 
Riddle of the Universe—viz., that the speed* and weight of 
the granules, corpuscles, atoms, and molecules, and the 
peculiarities of movement resulting from that speed and 
“Speed, and movement, may take many forms. 
