Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-12-31
THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE.
Basis For Belief In Its Reality May
Perhaps BE Found In Radium.


ParacelSilS. the arch magician of the
dark d.cS. announced that there
abideS in nature II certain form of mat
ter which. being discovered and brought
by art to perfection. converts TO itself
proportionally I'll imperfect bodies that
il touches Followin. this definition
of the philosophers stone came Il pc
riod of mysticism and charlatanry.
swaying the world with the belief that
the baScr metals might lie changed 10
gold. Ii is strange therefore, that the
formula of raracel>us should express
with precision the conclusions adopted
By a modern chemist no less Skeptical
and distinguished than Sir William
Ramsay. who in llarpcr's Magazine
makes known his opinion that the
''stone" may actually have been found
in the piercing AMI transmitting elec-
irons of radium.
This opinion is not yet Il belief. and
the conclusions are but tentative. Pro
fessor Ramsay assures us. however.
that they constitute Il working hypoth-
astronomer. discovered an unknown ell
ement. afierward named hclium. in the
chromoSphcic of the sun during an
eclipse Ramsay in lS91 found and
identified this element on the earth.
Only lately he has aScertaincd. with
the aid of other scientists. the aston
ishing fact that the eicctrons of the
element radiim which are exceeding
~ minute Particles. shot off with enor-
nous velocity when acting upon glass
change. diSlntcgrate and build up
new atoms of similar radio active ele-
ments. notably hclium. 1t is Il lcgiti-
mate Inference. declares Sir William
Ramsay. that if the atoms of ordinary
elements could be made to absorb en-
ergy they would undergo change of Il
constructive and not of Il descriptive
nature If. as looks probable. lie
maintains the action of the electrons.
themselves the conveyors of enormous
energy. Oh such matter as glass is to
build Up at,"IS which are radio active
ami III IL bc found that the particular
matter produced depends on the ele-
ment'' on which the clectrOns fall and
to which they mplrt their energy
then the tranSmntaiion of elements
no longer appears an idle dream" He
says further:
The philosophers stone will have been
discovered ana il is not beyond the
bounds Of possibility that it may lead TO
that other <, al Of the philosophers of the
dark ages the elixir little for the ac-
tion Of living cells is also dependent on
the nature and direction of the energy
which they contain. and who can say
that il will Toe impossible To control their
action when the means Of importing and
controlling energy shall have been inves-
teatcd?
Transmut;ition appears to he Il fact
In ut least one instance. Ii is almost
certain that radium. itself an element.
changes into various other elements.
Moreover. its life in its present form
is Il comparatively short one. and it
must therefore he in course of forma-
ton. else the amount would be exhaust
cd in anou, 100 years. The infer
encc may not be resisted that not this
element merely. but several elements.
are undergoing Il spontaneous change
into other forms Of matter. themselves
highly cncrgiZed, and themselves I'M
stable. Men already control the proc
ess of transmitting radium. Have they
indeed penetrated the secret at the
foundation of the forms of matter and
life?-New York Times.