New-York tribune., 1906-08-10
UORD KELVIN ON TRANsMUTATTON

The strange properties of radium are still the
subject of lively speculation and eager discus
sion among those whose life work is the study
of natures methods. One of the most interest
ing contributions TO the meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science,
which has just ended, was a paper on ''The Evo-
tuition of Elements by Professor Soddy That
investigator, it will be remembered, was the
first TO report the apparent transformation of
q gaseous emanatiOn from radium into helum
Sir William Ramsay repeated the experiment
and came TO the conclusion that change had
been effected as radical i'm its nature as the one
which the alchemists of old sought TO bring
about In what Professor Soddy had TO say the
other day there was probably nothing new, but
il ELECTED comment Of great significance. Lord
Kelvin, whom the late Lord Salisbury called
'Our highest living authority in science a few
years ago. took occasion to dissent from the
theory that one element can be evolved from an
other.
The grounds ON which Lord Kelvins skep-
ticism is based are not specified in the brief
press dispatch, but will doubtless appear when
full reports of the proceedings of the recent
meeting are available. Still, the simple fact
that he is unable to follow the lead of Professor
Soddy and Sir William Ramsay is significant
The Tribune has more than once insisted that
the facts from which is drawn the inference that
more than one Interpretation. Improbable
though it may seem. it is at least conceivable
that the helium which Professor Soddy and his
distinguished fellow worker obtained had been
hidden away all the time in the radium salts
with which they experimental and that they
witnessed, not a conversion. but merely a liber-
alton. Perhaps the true explanation of what
happened has not even been suspected. AT all
events there is no evidence whatsoever that
can be essentially changed. The future may
show that Lord Kelvin is wrong, and Professor
Soddy and Sir William Ramsay are right, but
at present the odds are against the believers in
transmutation, and protest from Lord Kelvin
cannot fail to exert a wholesome influence on
scientific thought
Lord Kelvin is credited also with disbelief in
the theory that the heat of the sun is due to the
presence and disintegration of radium. This is
another conjecture OF recent origin and mush-
roomlike growth, but 1t is not yet corrobOrated
by trustworthy testimony. Every one of the
elements gives characteristic indications in the
spectrOscOpe. Those of radIum are now a mat
ter of record. If, therefore, high authority in
astronomical spectrOscOpy-Ilke Director Camp
bell, Of the Lick Observatory, for instance
were TO declare that he had identified the lines
of radium in the solar spectrum his announce
ment would settle the question. Up to the pres
ent time, however, no such evidence has been
adduced, and the lack of it cOmpels cautious
men to refrain from hastily assuming that
radium is any more abundant in the sun than in
the earth. There are unmistakable signs of
helium in one of the solar envelopes. The very
name of the gas is a reminder Of the fact that
it was discovered by the astronomer before ter
restrial chemists found traces of it. Still, the
existence of helium in the sun and certain stars
warrants no conclusions about radium. Tile gas
can exist Independently Of the metal, for it does
so in the earth. To hold with Helmholtz and
Lord Kelvin that solar heat is a product Of
compression, due to gravitatlOn, may be little
old fashioned, perhaps, but it is more rational
than to attribute the heat to a substance which
does not yet cOndescend to show that it resides
in tho STln