Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-02-10
THE PHILOSOPHER S STONE.
Basis For belief In Its Reality May
Perhaps y Found In Rndinna

Basis For belief In It's Reality May
Perhaps Found In Rsdiuua.
Paracelsus. the arch magician of the
dark ages. announced that there
aDides in nature certain form OF mat
ter which, being discovered and brought
by art to perfection. converts to itself
proportionally ci imperfect bodies that
IL touches" Following this definition
OF the philosophers ''stone" came pc
Rod of mysticism and charlatanry,
swaying the world with the belief that
tie baser metals might be changed to
gold. 1t is strange, therefore, that the
formula of Paracelsus should express
with precision the conclusions adopted
by modern chemist no less skeptical
and distinguished than Sir William
Ramsay, who in Harper's Magazine
makes known his opinion that the
stone may actually have been fou Il
IN the piercing and transmitting cleo
irons of radium.
This opinion is not yet n belief, and
the conclusions are but tentative. Pro
fessor Ramsay assures us, however,
that they constitute a working hypoth-
esis. In 1868 NJ. Jansen, the French
astronomer, discovered an unknown ell
ement, afterward named helium. I'm the
chromosphere OF the sun during an
eclipse. Ramsay in 1896 found and
identified this element on the earth.
only lately he has ascertained, with
the aid OF other scientists, the aston
ishing fact that the electrons of the
element radium-which are exceeding.
~ minute particles, shot eff with enor-
nous veloeity-when acting upon glass
ohange, disintegrate and "build I'D"
new atoms of similar radio active ele-
ments. notably helium. 1t is a legiti.
mate Inference, declares Sir William
Ramsay, that IL the atoms of ordinary
elements could be made to absorb en-
ergy they would undergo change of n
constructive and not of q dlsruptiye
nature If, as looks probable. he
maintains. the action of the electrons,
themselves the conveyors of enormous
energy, on such matter as glass is to
build up atoms which are radio active
and ''if it be foupd that the particular
matter produced depends on the elef
ment on which the electrons fall and
to which they impart their energy
then the transmutation of elements
no longer appears an idle dream" He
says further:
The philosophers stone will have been
discovered, and II Is not beyond the
bounds OF possibility that IL may lead to
that other goal of the philosophers OF the
Ozark ages. the elixir vitae. for the ac-
ton OF living cells is also dependent on
the nature and direction OF the eAerRy
wnlcn they contain. and who can say
that 1T VIII be impossible to control their
action when the means OF imparting and
controlling energy shall have been jnVess
Transmutation appears to be a fact
In at least one instance. 1t is almost
certain that radium, itself an element,
changes into various other elements.
Moreover, its life in its present form
Is comparatively short one. and IL
must therefore be in course of fornla-
ton, else the amount would be exhaust
ed in about $500 years. The infer
ence may not be resisted that not this
element merely, but several elements.
are undergoing spontaneous change
into other forms OF matter, themselves
highly energized, and themselves un-
stable. Men already control the proc
sss Of transmitting radium Have they
indeed penetrated the secret at the
foundation of the forms OF matter and
lifeI-New York Times.