The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-05-13

fecting Photographic films without the
help of ordinary light. The phospho
resent substances which are so famil
lar to us in match boxes for use. a
night furnish extreme cases of such ra
diation. Compounds of the rare meta
uranium are particularly active in this
| way, and the method of studying sucf
| radiations has led to the discovery OF
two new metals, radium and polonum
which excel all other elements in theil
radiating power, 1t is not too much tc
| say that the work done in this new
branch Of physics during the last five
| years may one day be regarded as
among the most important Of all the
new departures in science by which the
nineteenth century relped us to under
stand the world we live in.
The really interesting thing about
these Becquerel rays is the explanation
of their nature first definitely expressed
by Professor Thomson, which, If 1t
turns out to be valid, will alter our fun
damental conceptions to the constitu-
ton of matter. His theory Is that the
Becquerel rays are not waves In the
ether, as it Is supposed that light waves
and heat waves and the electrical waves
that are used in wireless telegraphy
must be, but actual streams of matter
thrown off from the surface of the bod
les which emit them. The same theory
is applied to the kathode rays, which
are produced when an electric dis
charge is passed through tube ex-
hausted of air, and which in turn seem
to generate the we'll known Rontgen
rays. But the particles Of matter which
are thus thrown off cannot possibly be
the kind of matter with whose existence
we are all familiar from the chemistry
that we. learn at school or read in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica"
The atom, which Dalton placed among
the chief concepts of science about a
hundred years ago, was so named-ever
since Epicurus-because 1t was assumed
that 1t could not possibly be divided
into smaller parts. But many trains of
reasoning so to support Professor
Thomson's hypothesis that the corpus
cles," as he has called them, which APP
pear to form the kathode, or the Bee
querel rays are almost infinitely small
err than the supposed atoms can be. 1t
is impossible to give any intelligent idea
of their size; the mind is incapable of
dealing with such notions as that in
volved in M Becquerers statement
For example, that in one particular ex-
pertinent the efflux of material Is such
that one milligramme would disappear
from the radiating body in about a
thousand million years. One can only
think of the symbol of eternity in one Of
Grimms stories-the mountain a mile
square and a mile high which sparrow
has to carry away at the rate of one
journey in thousand years before the
first second of eternity is passed.
Among the extraordinary results which
may follow from this theory, if 1t be
proved, is the suggestion that these cor
puscleS are the atoms of some primary
matter of which all our diverse "ele-
nents'' are built up If that be &c. the
who insisted that lead could
90 transmitted into gold were right in
.heory though their practice was rath-
II wild. 1t may be a long while before
his particular conclusion bears what
Bacon called fruit, and perhaps at pres
mt it need not be expected to convulse
he money markets.-London Daily
News.