New-York tribune., 1905-07-02
THE CAMBRIDGE RADI0BES
Dir. Brke,s Microscopic Dots In
Glass Tubes.

rrcst talked of man of science in the United
Kingdom. An Irishman by birth he took his
degree at Trinity College. ana displayed peculiar
aptitude for research work in science. Profess
Fitzgerald, in Dublin. the first educator
to excite his enthusiasm for Investigations OF
this kind They worked together for short
period. until Mr.. Burke. who was only twenty
when he received his first degree, accepted an
invitation to become lecturer at Masons COL
lege Birmingham Those associated with MIN
were greatly impressed with his scientific ardor
and inventiveness IN suggesting methoos OF III
vestgation. and did everything in their power
to introduce him TO men Of science and TO en-
large his facilities for work He was ofered
fellowship at Owens College, Manchester. Where
Professor Schuster was his colleague and friend,
and IL was not long before he was engaged in
research work at Cambridge, where the CaVen-
dish Laboratory offered the best equipment IN
the country for physical and chemical investga-
tons He reached Cambridge by way Of the
Irish and provincial universities before the ar
dor Of youth had left him, and during the last
three years he has been convincing Lord Kelvin
Professor Thomson and other masters Of science
that he has original genius for profound IN
vestigations of the most advanced nature out
side the narrow circle of students employed in
research work he has been known as a popular
lecturer on radium; but that he processes
his ability to prove that spontaneous generation
is possible and that by means of radiuIn cult
ures the aspects Of vitality can be produced IN
sterilized bouillon. he has taken the world by
surprise and suggested and astounding
explanation of the origin OF life.
As the modest experimenter himself explains
his discoveries, he has been working for ten
years on a problem which has fascinated and
bafHed investigators and thinkers for genera
tions. This is spontaneous generation 1t was
IN his ind ba at
he was impressed when he was in Manchester
with Pftger's confident assertion that there
were elements Of life in the phosphorescence of
cyanogen- He experimental for years in attempts
10 transform cyanogen into life by processes Of
culture in sterilized media. After failing in
these efforts he took up radium as a superior
source Of energy, and went on with his work
Filling series of tubes with solution of beef
gelatine he exposed some of them to the action
OF radium after heating them above the boiling
point under high pressure for half hour
There were 10 results in the tubes which were
not exposed 10 radium; but in the other tubes
in the course of thirty-six hours several cultures
were generated. apparently spontaneously Some
thing had been created by the action Of radium
as a supreme source Of energy, and the investl-
gators first problem was to ascertain what these
microscopic substances were which, when photo
Eraphed appeared like dots specks in the
conditions of heat and sterilization previously
considered absolutely lethal? Were they crys-
tails with characteristic inorganic qualities?
Would they grow or exhibit any OF the primary
aspects Of life? These were questions which
Mr Burke undertook to solve by processes Of
sub-culture and painstaking observation; ana
while the mystery of the atoms is not yet salts
factoriIy explained, ne has convinced himself
that these are living things, produced by the
action of radium .a1d evolved from lifeless ma
reriaI Having watched them and photographed
them as independent existences, he considered
il his privilege to name them. They are intro
duced 10 adniring physicists as radiobes, the
discoverer being too modest TO name them after
himself
the radiobes with their innocent little round
beads look like bacteria; but Mr.. Burke, Pro-
fsssor woodhead and other experts are certain
that they are not what they seem, and that
thev could not have been in the radium and
have been protected against the destructive ef-
fects of heat and pressure. They grow for
SPACE but not after the manner of any known
bacterial cultures. Unlike bacteria, they are
soluble in water: and unlike crystals, they grow
end subdivide and probably reproduce and de-
cav Radium. by working some subtle change
in the medium, seems to bring them into being:
hut when they are once started on their careers
life and growth. They be transferred to
fresh supply Of sterilized bouillon, not exposed
to radium, and their processes of growth are
rot suspended They are shortlived but in
dependent little atoms; and there is Mr.. Burke's
word for it that they answer the requirements
OF Herbert Spencer's broad definition Of life:
1.-The continuous adjustment Of internal to ex-
ternal relations and the consistent emphasis
on the need OF adapting the organism TO its en-
vtronnlert" They know when their maximum
growth has been reached and promptly sub
divide; and while they primitive. life to them
is real if not earnest. The radiobes have all the
superficial aspects Of vitality, and they have not
sprung from a touch OF life but from the action
Of radium upon a sterilized medium. If the
=fscoverer can only succeed in proving that
they Increase and multipIy-and this is what he
Is hoping TO do-a new scientific chapter VIII
be written on the origin of life With his eye
On the n1iscroscope he is now watching the
stbdivided atoms and attempting TO find out
whether they display the same tendencies .tc
growth. segregation and subdivision, and the
same talent for adjustment TO environment
the original radiobes.
Life from the Lifeless' would seem the head
ing Of the new chapter in science; but before
It can be written the investigators at the Caven-
dish and other laboratories viii have to supple
nent their notes on the pioneer radiobes with
larger body OF evidence than they have now ac-
cllmulated. They viii have TO argue down the
objection of bacterologists that life necessarily
involves descent and parentage, and that spon-
taneous generation is a vagary of the imagIna-
t4on unsupported by proof They will also be
compelled TO reverse all the decisions based
upon microbes respecting continuity of life.
They cannot expect onlookers to see as much in