Front matter (continued 4)

I must briefly refer to what is one of the most interesting features of the Martian lines: the manner in which they appear to come and go like visions.

Something going on in Mars determines the phenomenon. On a particular night a certain line looks single. A few nights later signs of doubling are perceived, and later still, when the seeing is particularly good, not one but two lines are seen. Thus, as an example, we may take the case of Phison and Euphrates. Faint glimpses of the dual state were detected in the summer

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and autumn, but not till November did they appear as distinctly double. Observe that by this time the Antarctic snows had melted, and there was in addition, sufficient time for the moisture so liberated to become diffused in the planet's atmosphere.

This increase in the definition and conspicuousness of certain details on Mars' surface is further brought into connection with the liberation of the polar snows and the diffusion of this water through the atmosphere, by the fact that the definition appeared progressively better from the south pole upwards as the snow disappeared. Lowell thinks this points to vegetation springing up under the influence of moisture; he considers, however, as we have seen, that the canals convey the moisture. He has to assume the construction of triple canals to explain the doubling of the lines.

If we once admit the canals to be elevated ranges—not necessarily of great height—the difficulty of accounting for increased definition with increase of moisture vanishes. We need not necessarily even suppose vegetation concerned. With respect to this last possibility we may remark that the colour observations, upon which the idea of vegetation is based, are likely to be uncertain owing to possible fatigue effects where a dark object is seen against a reddish background.

However this may be we have to consider what the effects of moisture increasing in the atmosphere of Mars will be with regard to the visibility of elevated ranges,

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We assume a serene and rare atmosphere: the nights intensely cold, the days hot with the unveiled solar radiation. On the hill tops the cold of night will be still more intense and so, also, will the solar radiation by day. The result of this state of things will be that the moisture will be precipitated mainly on the mountains during the cold of night—in the form of frost—and during the day this covering of frost will melt; and, just as we see a heavy dew-fall darken the ground in summer, so the melting ice will set off the elevated land against the arid plains below. Our valleys are more moist than our mountains only because our moisture is so abundant that it drains off the mountains into the valleys. If moisture was scarce it would distil from the plains to the colder elevations of the hills. On this view the accentuation of a canal is the result of meteorological effects such as would arise in the Martian climate; effects which must be influenced by conditions of mountain elevation, atmospheric currents, etc. We, thus, follow Lowell in ascribing the accentuation of the canals to the circulation of water in Mars; but we assume a simple and natural mode of conveyance and do not postulate artificial structures of all but impossible magnitude. That vegetation may take part in the darkening of the elevated tracts is not improbable. Indeed we would expect that in the Martian climate these tracts would be the only fertile parts of the surface.

Clouds also there certainly are. More recent observations

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appear to have set this beyond doubt. Their presence obviously brings in other possible explanations of the coming and going of elevated surface features.

Finally, we may ask what about the reliability of the maps? About this it is to be said that the most recent map—that by Lowell—has been confirmed by numerous drawings by different observers, and that it is,itself the result of over 900 drawings. It has become a standard chart of Mars, and while it would be rash to contend for absence of errors it appears certain that the trend of the principal canals may be relied on, as, also, the general features of the planet's surface.

The question of the possibility of illusion has frequently been raised. What I have said above to a great extent answers such objections. The close agreement between the drawings of different observers ought really to set the matter at rest. Recently, however, photography has left no further room for scepticism. First photographed in 1905, the planet has since been photographed many thousands of times from various observatories. A majority of the canals have been so mapped. The doubling of the canals is stated to have been also so recorded.[1]

The hypothesis which I have ventured to put before you involves no organic intervention to account for the

[1] E. C. Slipher's paper in _Popular Astronomy_ for March, 1914, gives a good account of the recent work.

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details on Mars' surface. They are physical surface features. Mars presents his history written upon his face in the scars of former encounters—like the shield of Sir Launcelot. Some of the most interesting inferences of mathematical and physical astronomy find a confirmation in his history. The slowing down in the rate of axial rotation of the primary; the final inevitable destruction of the satellite; the existence in the past of a far larger number of asteroids than we at present are acquainted with; all these great facts are involved in the theory now advanced. If justifiably, then is Mars' face a veritable Principia.

To fully answer the question which heads these lectures, we should go out into the populous solitudes (if the term be permitted) which lie beyond our system. It is well that there is now no time left to do so; for, in fact, there we can only dream dreams wherein the limits of the possible and the impossible become lost.

The marvel of the infinite number of stars is not so marvellous as the rationality that fain would comprehend them. In seeking other minds than ours we seek for what is almost infinitely complex and coordinated in a material universe relatively simple and heterogeneous. In our mental attitude towards the great question, this fact must be regarded as fundamental.

I can only fitly close a discourse which has throughout weighed the question of the living thought against the unthinking laws of matter, by a paraphrase of the words

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of a great poet when he, in higher and, perhaps, more philosophic language, also sought to place the one in comparison with the other.[1]

Richter thought that he was—with his human heart unstrengthened—taken by an angel among the universe of stars. Then, as they journeyed, our solar system was sunken like a faint star in the abyss, and they travelled yet further, on the wings of thought, through mightier systems: through all the countless numbers of our galaxy. But at length these also were left behind, and faded like a mist into the past. But this was not all. The dawn of other galaxies appeared in the void. Stars more countless still with insufferable light emerged. And these also were passed. And so they went through galaxies without number till at length they stood in the great Cathedral of the Universe. Endless were the starry aisles; endless the starry columns; infinite the arches and the architraves of stars. And the poet saw the mighty galaxies as steps descending to infinity, and as steps going up to infinity.

Then his human heart fainted and he longed for some narrow cell; longed to lie down in the grave that he might hide from infinity. And he said to the angel:

"Angel, I can go with thee no farther. Is there, then, no end to the universe of stars?"

[1] De Quincy in his _System of the Heavens_ gives a fine paraphrase of "Richter's Dream."

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Then the angel flung up his glorious hands to the heaven of heavens, saying "End is there none to the universe of God? Lo! also there is no beginning."

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THE LATENT IMAGE [1]

My inclination has led me, in spite of a lively dread of incurring a charge of presumption, to address you principally on that profound and most subtle question, the nature and mode of formation of the photographic image. I am impelled to do so, not only because the subject is full of fascination and hopefulness, but because the wide topics of photographic methods or photographic applications would be quite unfittingly handled by the president you have chosen.

I would first direct your attention to Sir James Dewar's remarkable result that the photographic plate retains considerable power of forming the latent image at temperatures approaching the absolute zero—a result which, as I submit, compels us to regard the fundamental effects progressing in the film under the stimulus of light undulations as other than those of a purely chemical nature. But few, if any, instances of chemical combination or decomposition are known at so low a temperature. Purely chemical actions cease, indeed, at far higher temperatures, fluorine being among the few bodies which still show

[1] Presidential address to the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom, July, 1905. _Nature_, Vol. 72, p. 308.

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chemical activity at the comparatively elevated temperature of -180° C. In short, this result of Sir James Dewar's suggests that we must seek for the foundations of photographic action in some physical or intra-atomic effect which, as in the case of radioactivity or fluorescence, is not restricted to intervals of temperature over which active molecular vis viva prevails. It compels us to regard with doubt the role of oxidation or other chemical action as essential, but rather points to the view that such effects must be secondary or subsidiary. We feel, in a word, that we must turn for guidance to some purely photo-physical effect.

Here, in the first place, we naturally recall the views of Bose. This physicist would refer the formation of the image to a strain of the bromide of silver molecule under the electric force in the light wave, converting it into what might be regarded as an allotropic modification of the normal bromide which subsequently responds specially to the attack of the developer. The function of the sensitiser, according to this view, is to retard the recovery from strain. Bose obtained many suggestive parallels between the strain phenomena he was able to observe in silver and other substances under electromagnetic radiation and the behaviour of the photographic plate when subjected to long-continued exposure to light.

This theory, whatever it may have to recommend it, can hardly be regarded as offering a fundamental explanation. In the first place, we are left in the dark as to what

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the strain may be. It may mean many and various things. We know nothing as to the inner mechanism of its effects upon subsequent chemical actions—or at least we cannot correlate it with what is known of the physics of chemical activity. Finally, as will be seen later, it is hardly adequate to account for the varying degrees of stability which may apparently characterise the latent image. Still, there is much in Bose's work deserving of careful consideration. He has by no means exhausted the line of investigation he has originated.

Another theory has doubtless been in the minds of many. I have said we must seek guidance in some photo-physical phenomenon. There is one such which preeminently connects light and chemical phenomena through the intermediary of the effects of the former upon a component part of the atom. I refer to the phenomena of photo-electricity.

It was ascertained by Hertz and his immediate successors that light has a remarkable power of discharging negative electrification from the surface of bodies—especially from certain substances. For long no explanation of the cause of this appeared. But the electron—the ubiquitous electron—is now known with considerable certainty to be responsible. The effect of the electric force in the light wave is to direct or assist the electrons contained in the substance to escape from the surface of the body. Each electron carries away a very small charge of negative electrification. If, then, a body is

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originally charged negatively, it will be gradually discharged by this convective process. If it is not charged to start with, the electrons will still be liberated at the surface of the body, and this will acquire a positive charge. If the body is positively charged at first, we cannot discharge it by illumination.

It would be superfluous for me to speak here of the nature of electrons or of the various modes in which their presence may be detected. Suffice it to say, in further connection with the Hertz effect, that when projected among gaseous molecules the electron soon attaches itself to one of these. In other words, it ionises a molecule of the gas or confers its electric charge upon it. The gaseous molecule may even be itself disrupted by impact of the electron, if this is moving fast enough, and left bereft of an electron.

We must note that such ionisation may be regarded as conferring potential chemical properties upon the molecules of the gas and upon the substance whence the electrons are derived. Similar ionisation under electric forces enters, as we now believe, into all the chemical effects progressing in the galvanic cell, and, indeed, generally in ionised solutes.

An experiment will best illustrate the principles I wish to remind you of. A clean aluminium plate, carefully insulated by a sulphur support, is faced by a sheet of copper-wire-gauze placed a couple of centimetres away from it. The gauze is maintained at a high positive

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potential by this dry pile. A sensitive gold-leaf electroscope is attached to the aluminium plate, and its image thrown upon the screen. I now turn the light from this arc lamp upon the wire gauze, through which it in part passes and shines upon the aluminium plate. The electroscope at once charges up rapidly. There is a liberation of negative electrons at the surface of the aluminium; these, under the attraction of the positive body, are rapidly removed as ions, and the electroscope charges up positively.

Again, if I simply electrify negatively this aluminium plate so that the leaves of the attached electroscope diverge widely, and now expose it to the rays from the arc lamp, the charge, as you see, is very rapidly dissipated. With positive electrification of the aluminium there is no effect attendant on the illumination.

Thus from the work of Hertz and his successors we know that light, and more particularly what we call actinic light, is an effective means of setting free electrons from certain substances. In short, our photographic agent, light, has the power of expelling from certain substances the electron which is so potent a factor in most, if not in all, chemical effects. I have not time here to refer to the work of Elster and Geitel whereby they have shown that this action is to be traced to the electric force in the light wave, but must turn to the probable bearing of this phenomenon on the familiar facts of photography. I assume that the experiment I have shown you is the most

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fundamental photographic experiment which it is now in our power to make.

We must first ask from what substances can light liberate electrons. There are many—metals as well as non-metals and liquids. It is a very general phenomenon and must operate widely throughout nature. But what chiefly concerns the present consideration is the fact that the haloid salts of silver are vigorously photo-electric, and, it is suggestive, possess, according to Schmidt, an activity in the descending order bromide, chloride, iodide. This is, in other words, their order of activity as ionisers (under the proper conditions) when exposed to ultra-violet light. Photographers will recognise that this is also the order of their photographic sensitiveness.

Another class of bodies also concerns our subject: the special sensitisers used by the photographer to modify the spectral distribution of sensibility of the haloid salts, _e.g._ eosine, fuchsine, cyanine. These again are electron-producers under light stimulus. Now it has been shown by Stoletow, Hallwachs, and Elster and Geitel that there is an intimate connection between photo-electric activity and the absorption of light by the substance, and, indeed, that the particular wave-lengths absorbed by the substance are those which are effective in liberating the electrons. Thus we have strong reason for believing that the vigorous photo-electric activity displayed by the special sensitisers must be dependent upon their colour absorption. You will recognise that this is just

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the connection between their photographic effects and their behaviour towards light.

There is yet another suggestive parallel. I referred to the observation of Sir James Dewar as to the continued sensitiveness of the photographic film at the lowest attained extreme of temperature, and drew the inference that the fundamental photographic action must be of intra-atomic nature, and not dependent upon the vis viva of the molecule or atom. In then seeking the origin of photographic action in photo-electric phenomena we naturally ask, Are these latter phenomena also traceable at low temperatures? If they are, we are entitled to look upon this fact as a qualifying characteristic or as another link in the chain of evidence connecting photographic with photo-electric activity.

I have quite recently, with the aid of liquid air supplied to me from the laboratory of the Royal Dublin Society, tested the photo-sensibility of aluminium and also of silver bromide down to temperatures approaching that of the liquid air. The mode of observation is essentially that of Schmidt—what he terms his static method. The substance undergoing observation is, however, contained at the bottom of a thin copper tube, 5 cm. in diameter, which is immersed to a depth of about 10 cm in liquid air. The tube is closed above by a paraffin stopper which carries a thin quartz window as well as the sulphur tubes through which the connections pass. The air within is very carefully dried by phosphorus

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pentoxide before the experiment. The arc light is used as source of illumination. It is found that a vigorous photo-electric effect continues in the case of the clean aluminium. In the case of the silver bromide a distinct photo-electric effect is still observed. I have not had leisure to make, as yet, any trustworthy estimate of the percentage effect at this temperature in the case of either substance. Nor have I determined the temperature accurately. The latter may be taken as roughly about -150° C,

Sir James Dewar's actual measilrements afforded twenty per cent. of the normal photographic effect at -180° C. and ten per cent. at the temperature of -252.5° C.

With this much to go upon, and the important additional fact that the electronic discharge—as from the X-ray tube or from radium—generates the latent image, I think we are fully entitled to suggest, as a legitimate lead to experiment, the hypothesis that the beginnings of photographic action involve an electronic discharge from the light-sensitive molecule; in other words that the latent image is built up of ionised atoms or molecules the result of the photo-electric effect on the illuminated silver haloid, and it is upon these ionised atoms that the chemical effects of the developer are subsequently directed. It may be that the liberated electrons ionise molecules not directly affected, or it may be that in their liberation they disrupt complex molecules built up in the ripening of the

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emulsion. With the amount we have to go upon we cannot venture to particularise. It will be said that such an action must be in part of the nature of a chemical effect. This must be admitted, and, in so far as the rearrangement of molecular fabrics is involved, the result will doubtless be controlled by temperature conditions. The facts observed by Sir James Dewar support this. But there is involved a fundamental process—the liberation of the electron by the electric force in the light wave, which is a physical effect, and which, upon the hypothesis of its reality as a factor in forming the latent image, appears to explain completely the outstanding photographic sensitiveness of the film at temperatures far below those at which chemical actions in general cease.

Again, we may assume that the electron—producing power of the special sensitiser or dye for the particular ray it absorbs is responsible, or responsible in part, for the special sensitiveness it confers upon the film. Sir Wm. Abney has shown that these sensitisers are active even if laid on as a varnish on the sensitive surface and removed before development. It must be remembered, however, that at temperatures of about -50° these sensitisers lose much of their influence on the film; as I have pointed out in a paper read before the Photographic Convention of 1894.

It. appears to me that on these views the curious phenomenon of recurrent reversals does not present a problem hopeless of explanation. The process of photo-

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ionisation constituting the latent image, where the ion is probably not immediately neutralised by chemical combination, presents features akin to the charging of a capacity—say a Leyden jar. There may be a rising potential between the groups of ions until ultimately a point is attained when there is a spontaneous neutralisation. I may observe that the phenomena of reversal appear to indicate that the change in the silver bromide molecule, whatever be its nature, is one of gradually increasing intensity, and finally attains a maximum when a return to the original condition occurs. The maximum is the point of most intense developable image. It is probable that the sensitiser—in this case the gelatin in which the bromide of silver is immersed—plays a part in the conditions of stability which are involved.

Of great interest in all our considerations and theories is the recent work of Wood on photographic reversal. The result of this work is—as I take it—to show that the stability of the latent image may be very various according to the mode of its formation. Thus it appears that the sort of latent effect which is produced by pressure or friction is the least stable of any. This may be reversed or wiped out by the application of any other known form of photographic stimulus. Thus an exposure to X-rays will obliterate it, or a very brief exposure to light. The latent image arising from X-rays is next in order of increasing stability. Light action will remove this. Third in order is a very brief light-shock or sudden flash. This

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cannot be reversed by any of the foregoing modes of stimulation, but a long-continued undulatory stimulus, as from lamp-light, will reverse it. Last and most stable of all is the gradually built-up configuration due to long-continued light exposure. This can only be reversed by overdoing it according to the known facts of recurrent reversal. Wood takes occasion to remark that these phenomena are in bad agreement with the strain theory of Bose. We have, in fact, but the one resource—the allotropic modification of the haloid—whereby to explain all these orders of stability. It appears to me that the elasticity of the electronic theory is greater. The state of the ionised system may be very various according as it arises from continued rhythmic effects or from unorganised shocks. The ionisation due to X-rays or to friction will probably be quite unorganised, that due to light more or less stable according to the gradual and gentle nature of the forces at work. I think we are entitled to conclude that on the whole there is nothing in Wood's beautiful experiments opposed to the photo-electric origin of photographic effects, but that they rather fall in with what might be anticipated according to that theory.

When we look for further support to the views I have laid before you we are confronted with many difficulties. I have not as yet detected any electronic discharge from the film under light stimulus. This may be due to my defective experiments, or to a fact noted by Elster and Geitel concerning the photo-electric properties of gelatin.

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They obtained a vigorous effect from Balmain's luminous paint, but when this was mixed in gelatin there was no external effect. Schmidt's results as to the continuance of photo-electric activity when bodies in general are dissolved in each other lead us to believe that an actual conservative property of the medium and not an effect of this on the luminous paint is here involved. This conservative effect of the gelatin may be concerned with its efficacy as a sensitiser.

In the views I have laid before you I have endeavoured to show that the recent addition to our knowledge of the electron as an entity taking part in many physical and chemical effects should be kept in sight in seeking an explanation of the mode of origin of the latent image.[1]

[1] For a more detailed account of the subject, and some ingenious extensions of the views expressed above, see _Photo-Electricity_, by H. Stanley Allen: Longmans, Green & Ca., 1913.

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PLEOCHROIC HALOES [1]

IT is now well established that a helium atom is expelled from certain of the radioactive elements at the moment of transformation. The helium atom or alpha ray leaves the transforming atom with a velocity which varies in the different radioactive elements, but which is always very great, attaining as much as 2 x 109 cms. per second; a velocity which, if unchecked, would carry the atom round the earth in less than two seconds. The alpha ray carries a positive charge of double the ionic amount.

When an alpha ray is discharged from the transforming element into a gaseous medium its velocity is rapidly checked and its energy absorbed. A certain amount of energy is thus transferred from the transforming atom to the gas. We recognise this energy in the gas by the altered properties of the latter; chiefly by the fact that it becomes a conductor of electricity. The mechanism by which this change is effected is in part known. The atoms of the gas, which appear to be freely penetrated by the alpha ray, are so far dismembered as to yield charged electrons or ions; the atoms remaining charged with an equal and opposite charge. Such a medium of

[1] Being the Huxley Lecture, delivered at the University of Birmingham on October 30th, 1912. Bedrock, Jan., 1913.

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free electric charges becomes a conductor of electricity by convection when an electromotive force is applied. The gas also acquires other properties in virtue of its ionisation. Under certain conditions it may acquire chemical activity and new combinations may be formed or existing ones broken up. When its initial velocity is expended the helium atom gives up its properties as an alpha ray and thenceforth remains possessed of the ordinary varying velocity of thermal agitation. Bragg and Kleeman and others have investigated the career of the alpha ray when its path or range lies in a gas at ordinary or obtainable conditions of pressure and temperature. We will review some of the facts ascertained.

The range or distance traversed in a gas at ordinary pressures is a few centimetres. The following table, compiled by Geiger, gives the range in air at the temperature of 15° C.:

cms. cms. cms. Uranium 1 - 2.50 Thorium - 2.72 Radioactinium 4.60 Uranium 2 - 2.90 Radiothorium 3.87 Actinium X - 4.40 Ionium - 3.00 Thorium X - 4.30 Act Emanation 5.70 Radium - 3.30 Th Emanation 5.00 Actinium A - 6.50 Ra Emanation 4.16 Thorium A - 5.70 Actinium C - 5.40 Radium A - 4.75 Thorium C1 - 4.80 Radium C - 6.94 Thorium C2 - 8.60 Radium F - 3.77

It will be seen that the ray of greatest range is that proceeding from thorium C2, which reaches a distance of 8.6 cms. In the uranium family the fastest ray is

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that of radium C. It attains 6.94 cms. There is thus an appreciable difference between the ultimate distances traversed by the most energetic rays of the two families. The shortest ranges are those of uranium 1 and 2.

The ionisation effected by these rays is by no means uniform along the path of the ray. By examining the conductivity of the gas at different points along the path of the ray, the ionisation at these points may be determined. At the limits of the range the ionisation

{Fig. 13}

ceases. In this manner the range is, in fact, determined. The dotted curve (Fig. 13) depicts the recent investigation of the ionisation effected by a sheaf of parallel rays of radium C in air, as determined by Geiger. The range is laid out horizontally in centimetres. The numbers of ions are laid out vertically. The remarkable nature of the results will be at once apparent. We should have expected that the ray at the beginning of its path, when its velocity and kinetic energy were greatest, would have been more effective than towards the end of its range

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when its energy had almost run out. But the curve shows that it is just the other way. The lagging ray, about to resign its ionising properties, becomes a much more efficient ioniser than it was at first. The maximum efficiency is, however, in the case of a bundle of parallel rays, not quite at the end of the range, but about half a centimetre from it. The increase to the maximum is rapid, the fall from the maximum to nothing is much more rapid.

It can be shown that the ionisation effected anywhere along the path of the ray is inversely proportional to the velocity of the ray at that point. But this evidently does not apply to the last 5 or 10 mms. of the range where the rate of ionisation and of the speed of the ray change most rapidly. To what are the changing properties of the rays near the end of their path to be ascribed? It is only recently that this matter has been elucidated.

When the alpha ray has sufficiently slowed down, its power of passing right through atoms, without appreciably experiencing any effects from them, diminishes. The opposing atoms begin to exert an influence on the path of the ray, deflecting it a little. The heavier atoms will deflect it most. This effect has been very successfully investigated by Geiger. It is known as "scattering." The angle of scattering increases rapidly with the decrease of velocity. Now the effect of the scattering will be to cause some of the rays to complete their ranges

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or, more accurately, to leave their direct line of advance a little sooner than others. In the beautiful experiments of C. T. R. Wilson we are enabled to obtain ocular demonstration of the scattering. The photograph (Fig. 14.), which I owe to the kindness of Mr. Wilson, shows the deflection of the ray towards the end of its path. In

{Fig. 14}

this case the path of the ray has been rendered visible by the condensation of water particles under the influence of the ionisation; the atmosphere in which the ray travels being in a state of supersaturation with water vapour at the instant of the passage of the ray. It is evident that if we were observing the ionisation along a sheaf of parallel rays, all starting with equal velocity,

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the effect of the bending of some of the rays near the end of their range must be to cause a decrease in the aggregate ionisation near the very end of the ultimate range. For, in fact, some of the rays complete their work of ionising at points in the gas before the end is reached. This is the cause, or at least an important contributory cause, of the decline in the ionisation near the end of the range, when the effects of a bundle of rays are being observed. The explanation does not suggest that the ionising power of any one ray is actually diminished before it finally ceases to be an alpha ray.

The full line in Fig. 13 gives the ionisation curve which it may be expected would be struck out by a single alpha ray. In it the ionisation goes on increasing till it abruptly ceases altogether, with the entire loss of the initial kinetic energy of the particle.

A highly remarkable fact was found out by Bragg. The effect of the atom traversed by the ray in checking the velocity of the ray is independent of the physical and chemical condition of the atom. He measured the "stopping power" of a medium by the distance the ray can penetrate into it compared with the distance to which it can penetrate in air. The less the ratio the greater is the stopping power. The stopping power of a substance is proportional to the square root of its atomic weight. The stopping power of an atom is not altered if it is in chemical union with another atom. The atomic weight is the one quality of importance. The physical

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state, whether the element is in the solid, liquid or gaseous state, is unimportant. And when we deal with molecules the stopping power is simply proportional to the sum of the square roots of the atomic weights of the atoms entering into the molecule. This is the "additive law," and it obviously enables us to calculate what the range in any substance of known chemical composition and density will be, compared with the range in air.

This is of special importance in connection with phenomena we have presently to consider. It means that, knowing the chemical composition and density of any medium whatsoever, solid, liquid or gaseous, we can calculate accurately the distance to which any particular alpha ray will penetrate. Nor have the temperature and pressure to which the medium is subjected any influence save in so far as they may affect the proximity of one atom to another. The retardation of the alpha ray in the atom is not affected.

This valuable additive law, however, cannot be applied in strictness to the amount of ionisation attending the ray. The form of the molecule, or more generally its volume, may have an influence upon this. Bragg draws the conclusion, from this fact as well as from the notable increase of ionisation with loss of speed, that the ionisation is dependent upon the time the ray spends in the molecule. The energy of the ray is, indeed, found to be less efficient in producing ionisation in the smaller atomm.

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Before leaving our review of the general laws governing the passage of alpha rays through matter, another point of interest must be referred to. We have hitherto spoken in general terms of the fact that ionisation attends the passage of the ray. We have said nothing as to the nature of the ionisation so produced. But in point of fact the ionisation due to an alpha ray is sui generis. A glance at one of Wilson's photographs (Fig. 14.) illustrates this. The white streak of water particles marks the path of the ray. The ions produced are evidently closely crowded along the track of the ray. They have been called into existence in a very minute instant of time. Now we know that ions of opposite sign if left to themselves recombine. The rate of recombination depends upon the product of the number of each sign present in unit volume. Here the numbers are very great and the volume very small. The ionic density is therefore high, and recombination very rapidly removes the ions after they are formed. We see here a peculiarity of the ionisation effected by alpha rays. It is linear in distribution and very local. Much of the ionisation in gases is again undone by recombination before diffusion leads to the separation of the ions. This "initial recombination" is greatest towards the end of the path of the ray where the ionisation is a maximum. Here it may be so effective that the form of the curve is completely lost unless a very large electromotive force is used to separate the ions when the ionisation is being investigated.

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We have now reviewed recent work at sufficient length to understand something of the nature of the most important advance ever made in our knowledge of the atom. Let us glance briefly at what we have learned. The radioactive atom in sinking to a lower atomic weight casts out with enormous velocity an atom of helium. It thus loses a definite portion of its mass and of its energy. Helium which is chemically one of the most inert of the elements, is, when possessed of such great kinetic energy, able to penetrate and ionise the atoms which it meets in its path. It spends its energy in the act of ionising them, coming to rest, when it moves in air, in a few centimetres. Its initial velocity depends upon the particular radioactive element which has given rise to it. The length of its path is therefore different according to the radioactive element from which it proceeds. The retardation which it experiences in its path depends entirely upon the atomic weight of the atoms which it traverses. As it advances in its path its effectiveness in ionising the atom rapidly increases and attains a very marked maximum. In a gas the ions produced being much crowded together recombine rapidly; so rapidly that the actual ionisation may be quite concealed unless a sufficiently strong electric force is applied to separate them. Such is a brief summary of the climax of radioactive discovery:—the birth, life and death of the alpha ray. Its advent into Science has altered fundamentally our conception of

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matter. It is fraught with momentous bearings upon Geological Science. How the work of the alpha ray is sometimes recorded visibly in the rocks and what we may learn from that record, I propose now to bring before you.

In certain minerals, notably the brown variety of mica known as biotite, the microscope reveals minute circular marks occurring here and there, quite irregularly. The most usual appearance is that of a circular area darker in colour than the surrounding mineral. The radii of these little disc-shaped marks when well defined are found to be remarkably uniform, in some cases four hundredths of a millimetre and in others three hundredths, about. These are the measurements in biotite. In other minerals the measurements are not quite the same as in biotite. Such minute objects are quite invisible to the naked eye. In some rocks they are very abundant, indeed they may be crowded together in such numbers as to darken the colour of the mineral containing them. They have long been a mystery to petrologists.

Close examination shows that there is always a small speck of a foreign body at the centre of the circle, and it is often possible to identify the nature of this central substance, small though it be. Most generally it is found to be the mineral zircon. Now this mineral was shown by Strutt to contain radium in quantities much exceeding those found in ordinary rock substances.

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Some other mineral may occasionally form the nucleus, but we never find any which is not known to be specially likely to contain a radioactive substance. Another circumstance we notice. The smaller this central nucleus the more perfect in form is the darkened circular area surrounding it. When the circle is very perfect and the central mineral clearly defined at its centre we find by measurement that the radius of the darkened area is generally 0.033 mm. It may sometimes be 0.040 mm. These are always the measurements in biotite. In other minerals the radii are a little different.

We see in the photograph (Pl. XXIII, lower figure), much magnified, a halo contained in biotite. We are looking at a region in a rock-section, the rock being ground down to such a thickness that light freely passes through it. The biotite is in the centre of the field. Quartz and felspar surround it. The rock is a granite. The biotite is not all one crystal. Two crystals, mutually inclined, are cut across. The halo extends across both crystals, but owing to the fact that polarised light is used in taking the photograph it appears darker in one crystal than in the other. We see the zircon which composes the nucleus. The fine striated appearance of the biotite is due to the cleavage of that mineral, which is cut across in the section.

The question arises whether the darkened area surrounding the zircon may not be due to the influence of the radioactive substances contained in the zircon. The

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extraordinary uniformity of the radial measurements of perfectly formed haloes (to use the name by which they have long been known) suggests that they may be the result of alpha radiation. For in that case, as we have seen, we can at once account for the definite radius as simply representing the range of the ray in biotite. The furthest-reaching ray will define the radius of the halo. In the case of the uranium family this will be radium C, and in the case of thorium it will be thorium C. Now here we possess a means of at once confirming or rejecting the view that the halo is a radioactive phenomenon and occasioned by alpha radiation; for we can calculate what the range of these rays will be in biotite, availing ourselves of Bragg's additive law, already referred to. When we make this calculation we find that radium C just penetrates 0.033 mm. and thorium C 0.040 mm. The proof is complete that we are dealing with the effects of alpha rays. Observe now that not only is the coincidence of measurement and calculation a proof of the view that alpha radiation has occasioned the halo, but it is a very complete verification of the important fact stated by Bragg, that the stopping power depends solely on the atomic weight of the atoms traversed by the ray.

We have seen that our examination of the rocks reveals only the two sorts of halo: the radium halo and the thorium halo. This is not without teaching. For why not find an actinium halo? Now Rutherford long ago suggested that this element and its derivatives were

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probably an offspring of the uranium family; a side branch, as it were, in the formation of which relatively few transforming atoms took part. On Rutherford's theory then, actinium should always accompany uranium and radium, but in very subordinate amount. The absence of actinium haloes clearly supports this view. For if actinium was an independent element we would be sure to find actinium haloes. The difference in radius should be noticeable. If, on the other hand, actinium

was always associated with uranium and radium, then its effects would be submerged in those of the much more potent effects of the uranium series of elements.

It will have occurred to you already that if the radioactive origin of the halo is assured the shape of a halo is not really circular, but spherical. This is so. There is no such thing as a disc-shaped halo. The halo is a spherical volume containing the radioactive nucleus at its centre. The true radius of the halo may, therefore, only be measured on sections passing through the nucleus.

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In order to understand the mode of formation of a halo we may profitably study on a diagram the events which go on within the halo-sphere. Such a diagram is seen in Fig. 15. It shows to relatively correct scale the limiting range of all the alpha-ray producing members of the uranium and thorium families. We know that each member of a family will exist in equilibrium amount within the nucleus possessing the parent element. Each alpha ray leaving the nucleus will just attain its range and then cease to affect the mica. Within the halosphere, there must be, therefore, the accumulated effects of the influences of all the rays. Each has its own sphere of influence, and the spheres are all concentric.

The radii in biotite of the several spheres are given in the following table

URANIUM FAMILY. Radium C - 0.0330 mm. Radium A - 0.0224 mm. Ra Emanation - 0.0196 mm. Radium F - 0.0177 mm. Radium - 0.0156 mm. Ionium - 0.0141 mm. Uranium 1 - 0.0137 mm. Uranium 2 - 0.0118 mm.

THORIUM FAMILY. Thorium CE - 0.040 mm. Thorium A - 0.026 mm. Th Emanation - 0.023 mm. Thorium Ci - 0.022 mm. Thorium X - 0.020 mm. Radiothorium - 0.119 mm. Thorium - 0.013 mm.

In the photograph (Pl. XXIV, lower figure), we see a uranium and a thorium halo in the same crystal of mica. The mica is contained in a rock-section and is cut across the cleavage. The effects of thorium Ca are clearly shown

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as a lighter border surrounding the accumulated inner darkening due to the other thorium rays. The uranium halo (to the right) similarly shows the effects of radium C, but less distinctly.

Haloes which are uniformly dark all over as described above are, in point of fact, "over-exposed"; to borrow a familiar photographic term. Haloes are found which show much beautiful internal detail. Too vigorous action obscures this detail just as detail is lost in an over-exposed photograph. We may again have "under-exposed" haloes in which the action of the several rays is incomplete or in which the action of certain of the rays has left little if any trace. Beginning at the most under-exposed haloes we find circular dark marks having the radius 0.012 or 0.013 mm. These haloes are due to uranium, although their inner darkening is doubtless aided by the passage of rays which were too few to extend the darkening beyond the vigorous effects of the two uranium rays. Then we find haloes carried out to the radii 0.016, 0.018 and 0.019 mm. The last sometimes show very beautiful outer rings having radial dimensions such as would be produced by radium A and radium C. Finally we may have haloes in which interior detail is lost so far out as the radius due to emanation or radium A, while outside this floats the ring due to radium C. Certain variations of these effects may occur, marking, apparently, different stages of exposure. Plates XXIII and XXIV (upper figure) illustrate some of these stages;

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the latter photograph being greatly enlarged to show clearly the halo-sphere of radium A.

In most of the cases mentioned above the structure evidently shows the existence of concentric spherical shells of darkened biotite. This is a very interesting fact. For it proves that in the mineral the alpha ray gives rise to the same increased ionisation towards the end of its range, as Bragg determined in the case of gases. And we must conclude that the halo in every case grows in this manner. A spherical shell of darkened biotite is first produced and the inner colouration is only effected as the more feeble ionisation along the track of the ray in course of ages gives rise to sufficient alteration of the mineral. This more feeble ionisation is, near the nucleus, enhanced in its effects by the fact that there all the rays combine to increase the ionisation and, moreover, the several tracks are there crowded by the convergency to the centre. Hence the most elementary haloes seldom show definite rings due to uranium, etc., but appear as embryonic disc-like markings. The photographs illustrate many of the phases of halo development.

Rutherford succeeded in making a halo artificially by compressing into a capillary glass tube a quantity of the emanation of radium. As the emanation decayed the various derived products came into existence and all the several alpha rays penetrated the glass, darkening the walls of the capillary out to the limit of the range of radium C in glass. Plate XXV shows a magnified section of the

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tube. The dark central part is the capillary. The tubular halo surrounds it. This experiment has, however, been anticipated by some scores of millions of years, for here is the same effect in a biotite crystal (Pl. XXV). Along what are apparently tubular passages or cracks in the mica, a solution, rich in radioactive substances, has moved; probably during the final consolidation of the granite in which the mica occurs. A continuous and very regular halo has developed along these conduits. A string of halo-spheres may lie along such passages. We must infer that solutions or gases able to establish the radioactive nuclei moved along these conduits, and we are entitled to ask if all the haloes in this biotite are not, in this sense, of secondary origin. There is, I may add, much to support such a conclusion.

The widespread distribution of radioactive substances is most readily appreciated by examination of sections of rocks cut thin enough for microscopic investigation. It is, indeed, difficult to find, in the older rocks of granitic type, mica which does not show haloes, or traces of haloes. Often we find that every one of the inclusions in the mica—that is, every one of the earlier formed substances—contain radioactive elements, as indicated by the presence of darkened borders. As will be seen presently the quantities involved are generally vanishingly small. For example it was found by direct determination that in one gram of the halo-rich mica of Co. Carlow there was rather less than twelve billionths of a gram of radium, We are

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entitled to infer that other rare elements are similarly widely distributed but remain undetectable because of their more stable properties.

It must not be thought that the under-exposed halo is a recent creation. By no means. All are old, appallingly old; and in the same rock all are, probably, of the same, or neatly the same, age. The under-exposure is simply due to a lesser quantity of the radioactive elements in the nucleus. They are under-exposed, in short, not because of lesser duration of exposure, but because of insufficient action; as when in taking a photograph the stop is not open enough for the time of the exposure.

The halo has, so far, told us that the additive law is obeyed in solid media, and that the increased ionisation attending the slowing down of the ray obtaining in gases, also obtains in solids; for, otherwise, the halo would not commence its development as a spherical shell or envelope. But here we learn that there is probably a certain difference in the course of events attending the immediate passage of the ray in the gas and in the solid. In the former, initial recombination may obscure the intense ionisation near the end of the range. We can only detect the true end-effects by artificially separating the ions by a strong electric force. If this recombination happened in the mineral we should not have the concentric spheres so well defined as we see them to be. What, then, hinders the initial recombination in the solid? The answer probably is that the newly formed

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ion is instantly used up in a fresh chemical combination. Nor is it free to change its place as in the gas. There is simply a new equilibrium brought about by its sudden production. In this manner the conditions in the complex molecule of biotite, tourmaline, etc., may be quite as effective in preventing initial recombination as the most effective electric force we could apply. The final result is that we find the Bragg curve reproduced most accurately in the delicate shading of the rings making up the perfectly exposed halo.

That the shading of the rings reproduces the form of the Bragg curve, projected, as it were, upon the line of advance of the ray and reproduced in depth of shading, shows that in yet another particular the alpha ray behaves much the same in the solid as in the gas. A careful examination of the outer edge of the circles always reveals a steep but not abrupt cessation of the action of the ray. Now Geiger has investigated and proved the existence of scattering of the alpha ray by solids. We may, therefore, suppose with much probability that there is the same scattering within the mineral near the end of the range. The heavy iron atom of the biotite is, doubtless, chiefly responsible for this in biotite haloes. I may observe that this shading of the outer bounding surface of the sphere of action is found however minute the central nucleus. In the case of a nucleus of considerable size another effect comes in which tends to produce an enhanced shading. This will

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result if rays proceed from different depths in the nucleus. If the nucleus were of the same density and atomic weight as the surrounding mica, there would be little effect. But its density and molecular weight are generally greater, hence the retardation is greater, and rays proceeding from deep in the nucleus experience more retardation than those which proceed from points near to the surface. The distances reached by the rays in the mica will vary accordingly, and so there will be a gradual cessation of the effects of the rays.

The result of our study of the halo may be summed up in the statement that in nearly every particular we have the phenomena, which have been measured and observed in the gas, reproduced on a minute scale in the halo. Initial recombination seems, however, to be absent or diminished in effectiveness; probably because of the new stability instantly assumed by the ionised atoms.

One of the most interesting points about the halo remains to be referred to. The halo is always uniformly darkened all round its circumference and is perfectly spherical. Sections, whether taken in the plane of cleavage of the mica or across it, show the same exactly circular form, and the same radius. Of course, if there was any appreciable increase of range along or across the cleavage the form of the halo on the section across the cleavage should be elliptical. The fact that there is no measurable ellipticity is, I think, one which on first consideration would not be expected.

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For what are the conditions attending the passage of the ray in a medium such as mica? According to crystallographic conceptions we have here an orderly arrangement of molecules, the units composing the crystal being alike in mass, geometrically spaced, and polarised as regards the attractions they exert one upon another. Mica, more especially, has the cleavage phenomenon developed to a degree which transcends its development in any other known substance. We can cleave it and again cleave it till its flakes float in the air, and we may yet go on cleaving it by special means till the flakes no longer reflect visible light. And not less remarkable is the uniplanar nature of its cleavage. There is little cleavage in any plane but the one, although it is easy to show that the molecules in the plane of the flake are in orderly arrangement and are more easily parted in some directions than in others. In such a medium beyond all others we must look with surprise upon the perfect sphere struck out by the alpha rays, because it seems certain that the cleavage is due to lesser attraction, and, probably, further spacing of the molecules, in a direction perpendicular to the cleavage.

It may turn out that the spacing of the molecules will influence but little the average number per unit distance encountered by rays moving in divergent paths. If this is so, we seem left to conclude that, in spite of its unequal and polarised attractions, there is equal retardation and equal ionisation in the molecule in whatever

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direction it is approached. Or, again, if the encounters indeed differ in number, then some compensating effect must exist whereby a direction of lesser linear density involves greater stopping power in the molecule encountered, and vice versa.

The nature of the change produced by the alpha rays is unknown. But the formation of the halo is not, at least in its earlier stages, attended by destruction of the crystallographic and optical properties of the medium. The optical properties are unaltered in nature but are increased in intensity. This applies till the halo has become so darkened that light is no longer transmitted under the conditions of thickness obtaining in rock sections. It is well known that there is in biotite a maximum absorption of a plane-polarised light ray, when the plane of vibration coincides with the plane of cleavage. A section across the cleavage then shows a maximum amount of absorption. A halo seen on this section simply produces this effect in a more intense degree. This is well shown in Plate XXIII (lower figure), on a portion of the halo-sphere. The descriptive name "Pleochroic Halo" has originated from this fact. We must conclude that the effect of the ionisation due to the alpha ray has not been to alter fundamentally the conditions which give rise to the optical properties of the medium. The increased absorption is probably associated with some change in the chemical state of the iron present. Haloes are, I believe, not found in minerals from which this

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element is absent. One thing is quite certain. The colouration is not due to an accumulation of helium atoms, _i.e._ of spent alpha rays. The evidence for this is conclusive. If helium was responsible we should have haloes produced in all sorts of colourless minerals. Now we sometimes see zircons in felspars and in quartz, etc., but in no such case is a halo produced. And halo-spheres formed within and sufficiently close to the edge of a crystal of mica are abruptly truncated by neighbouring areas of fclspar or quartz, although we know that the rays must pass freely across the boundary. Again it is easy to show that even in the oldest haloes the quantity of helium involved is so small that one might say the halo-sphere was a tolerably good vacuum as regards helium. There is, finally, no reason to suppose that the imprisoned helium would exhibit such a colouration, or, indeed, any at all.

I have already referred to the great age of the halo. Haloes are not found in the younger igneous rocks. It is probable that a halo less than a million years old has never been seen. This, primâ facie, indicates an extremely slow rate of formation. And our calculations quite support the conclusions that the growth of a halo, if this has been uniform, proceeds at a rate of almost unimaginable slowness.

Let us calculate the number of alpha rays which may have gone to form a halo in the Devonian granite of Leinster.

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It is common to find haloes developed perfectly in this granite, and having a nucleus of zircon less than 5 x 10^-4 cms. in diameter. The volume of zircon is 65 x 10^-12 c.cs. and the mass 3 x 10^-10 grm.; and if there was in this zircon 10^-8 grm. radium per gram (a quantity about five times the greatest amount measured by Strutt), the mass of radium involved is 3 x 10^-18 grm. From this and from the fact ascertained by Rutherford that the number of alpha rays expelled by a gram of radium in one second is 3.4 x 10¹⁰, we find that three rays are shot from the nucleus in a year. If, now, geological time since the Devonian is 50 millions of years, then 150 millions of rays built up the halo. If geological time since the Devonian is 400 millions of years, then 1,200 millions of alpha rays are concerned in its genesis. The number of ions involved, of course, greatly exceeds these numbers. A single alpha ray fired from radium C will produce 2.37 x 10⁵ ions in air.

But haloes may be found quite clearly defined and fairly dark out to the range of the emanation ray and derived from much less quantities of radioactive materials. Thus a zircon nucleus with a diameter of but 3.4 x 10^-4 cms. formed a halo strongly darkened within, and showing radium A and radium C as clear smoky rings. Such a nucleus, on the assumption made above as to its radium content, expels one ray in a year. But, again, haloes are observed with less blackened pupils and with faint ring due to radium C, formed round nuclei

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of rather less than 2 x 10^-4 cms. diameter. Such nuclei would expel one ray in five years. And even lesser nuclei will generate in these old rocks haloes with their earlier characteristic features clearly developed. In the case of the most minute nuclei, if my assumption as to the uranium content is correct, an alpha ray is expelled, probably, no oftener than once in a century; and possibly at still longer intervals.

The equilibrium amount of radium contained in some nuclei may amount to only a few atoms. Even in the case of the larger nuclei and more perfectly developed haloes the quantity of radium involved is many millions of times less than the least amount we can recognise by any other means. But the delicacy of the observation is not adequately set forth in this statement. We can not only tell the nature of the radioactive family with which we are dealing; but we can recognise the presence of some of its constituent members. I may say that it is not probable the zircons are richer in radium than I have assumed. My assumption involves about 3 per cent. of uranium. I know of no analyses ascribing so great an amount of uranium to zircon. The variety cyrtolite has been found to contain half this amount, about. But even if we doubled our estimate of radium content, the remarkable nature of our conclusions is hardly lessened.

It may appear strange that the ever-interesting question of the Earth's age should find elucidation from the

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study of haloes. Nevertheless the subjects are closely connected. The circumstances are as follows. Geologists have estimated the age of the Earth since denudation began, by measurements of the integral effects of denudation. These methods agree in showing an age of about rob years. On the other hand, measurements have been made of the accumulation in minerals of radioactive _débris_—the helium and lead—and results obtained which, although they do not agree very well among themselves, are concordant in assigning a very much greater age to the rocks. If the radioactive estimate is correct, then we are now living in a time when the denudative forces of the Earth are about eight or nine times as active as they have been on the average over the past. Such a state of things is absolutely unaccountable. And all the more unaccountable because from all we know we would expect a somewhat _lesser_ rate of solvent denudation as the world gets older and the land gets more and more loaded with the washed-out materials of the rocks.

Both the methods referred to of finding the age assume the principle of uniformity. The geologist contends for uniformity throughout the past physical history of the Earth. The physicist claims the like for the change-rates of the radioactive elements. Now the study of the rocks enables us to infer something as to the past history of our Globe. Nothing is, on the other hand, known respecting the origin of uranium or thorium—the parent radioactive bodies. And while not questioning the law

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and regularity which undoubtedly prevail in the periods of the members of the radioactive families, it appears to me that it is allowable to ask if the change rate of uranium has been always what we now believe it to be. This comes to much the same thing as supposing that atoms possessing a faster change rate once were associated with it which were capable of yielding both helium and lead to the rocks. Such atoms might have been collateral in origin with uranium from some antecedent element. Like helium, lead may be a derivative from more than one sequence of radioactive changes. In the present state of our knowledge the possibilities are many. The rate of change is known to be connected with the range of the alpha ray expelled by the transforming element; and the conformity of the halo with our existing knowledge of the ranges is reason for assuming that, whatever the origin of the more active associate of uranium, this passed through similar elemental changes in the progress of its disintegration. There may, however, have been differences in the ranges which the halo would not reveal. It is remarkable that uranium at the present time is apparently responsible for two alpha rays of very different ranges. If these proceed from different elements, one should be faster in its change rate than the other. Some guidance may yet be forthcoming from the study of the more obscure problems of radioactivity.

Now it is not improbable that the halo may contribute directly to this discussion. We can evidently attack

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the biotite with a known number of alpha rays and determine how many are required to produce a certain intensity of darkening, corresponding to that of a halo with a nucleus of measurable dimensions. On certain assumptions, which are correct within defined limits, we can calculate, as I have done above, the number of rays concerned in forming the halo. In doing so we assume some value for the age of the halo. Let us take the maximum radioactive value. A halo originating in Devonian times may attain a certain central blackening from the effects of, say, rob rays. But now suppose we find that we cannot produce the same degree of blackening with this number of rays applied in the laboratory. What are we to conclude? I think there is only the one conclusion open to us; that some other source of alpha rays, or a faster rate of supply, existed in the past. And this conclusion would explain the absence of haloes from the younger rocks; which, in view of the vast range of effects possible in the development of haloes, is, otherwise, not easy to account for. It is apparent that the experiment on the biotite has a direct bearing on the validity of the radioactive method of estimating the age of the rocks. It is now being carried out by Professor Rutherford under reliable conditions.

Finally, there is one very certain and valuable fact to be learned from the halo. The halo has established the extreme rarity of radioactivity as an atomic phenomenon. One and all of the speculations as to

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the slow breakdown of the commoner elements may be dismissed. The halo shows that the mica of the rocks is radioactively sensitive. The fundamental criterion of radioactive change is the expulsion of the alpha ray. The molecular system of the mica and of many other minerals is unstable in presence of these rays, just as a photographic plate is unstable in presence of light. Moreover, the mineral integrates the radioactive effects in the same way as a photographic salt integrates the effects of light. In both cases the feeblest activities become ultimately apparent to our inspection. We have seen that one ray in each year since the Devonian period will build the fully formed halo: an object unlike any other appearance in the rocks. And we have been able to allocate all the haloes so far investigated to one or the other of the known radioactive families. We are evidently justified in the belief that had other elements been radioactive we must either find characteristic haloes produced by them, or else find a complete darkening of the mica. The feeblest alpha rays emitted by the relatively enormous quantities of the prevailing elements, acting over the whole duration of geological time—and it must be remembered that the haloes we have been studying are comparatively young—must have registered their effects on the sensitive minerals. And thus we are safe in concluding that the common elements, and, indeed, many which would be called rare, are possessed of a degree of stability which has preserved them un

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changed since the beginning of geological time. Each unaffected flake of mica is, thus, unassailable proof of a fact which but for the halo would, probably, have been for ever beyond our cognisance.

THE USE OF RADIUM IN MEDICINE [1]

IT has been unfortunate for the progress of the radioactive treatment of disease that its methods and claims involve much of the marvellous. Up till recently, indeed, a large part of radioactive therapeutics could only be described as bordering on the occult. It is not surprising that when, in addition to its occult and marvellous characters, claims were made on its behalf which in many cases could not be supported, many medical men came to regard it with a certain amount of suspicion.

Today, I believe, we are in a better position. I think it is possible to ascribe a rational scientific basis to its legitimate claims, and to show, in fact, that in radioactive treatment we are pursuing methods which have been already tried extensively and found to be of definite value; and that new methods differ from the old mainly in their power and availability, and little, or not at all, in kind.

Let us briefly review the basis of the science. Radium is a metallic element chemically resembling barium. It

[1] A Lecture to Postgraduate Students of Medicine in connection with the founding of the Dublin Radium Institute, delivered in the School of Physic in Ireland, Trinity College, on October 2nd, 1914

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possesses, however, a remarkable property which barium does not. Its atoms are not equally stable. In a given quantity of radium a certain very small percentage of the total number of atoms present break up per second. By "breaking up" we mean their transmutation to another element. Radium, which is a solid element under ordinary conditions, gives rise by transmutation to a gaseous element—the emanation of radium. The new element is a heavy gas at ordinary temperatures and, like other gases, can be liquified by extreme cold. The extraordinary property of transmutation is entirely automatic. No influence which chemist or physicist can apply can affect the rate of transformation.

The emanation inherits the property of instability, but in its case the instability is more pronounced. A relatively large fraction of its atoms transmute per second to a solid element designated Radium A. In turn this new generation of atoms breaks up—even faster than the emanation—becoming yet another element with specific chemical properties. And so on for a whole sequence of transmutations, till finally a stable substance is formed, identical with ordinary lead in chemical and physical properties, but possessing a slightly lower atomic weight.

The genealogy of the radium series of elements shows that radium is not the starting point. It possesses ancestors which have been traced back to the element uranium.

Now what bearing has this series of transmutations

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upon medical science? Radium or emanation, &c., are not in the Pharmacopoeia as are, say, arsenic or bismuth. The whole medicinal value of these elements resides in the very wonderful phenomena of their radiations. They radiate in the process of transmuting.

The changing atom may radiate a part of its own mass. The "alpha"-ray (a-ray) is such a material ray. It is an electrified helium atom cast out of the parent atom with enormous velocity—such a velocity as would carry it, if not impeded, all round the earth in two seconds. All alpha-rays are positively electrified atoms of the element helium, which thereby is shown to be an integral constituent of many elements. The alpha-ray is not of much value to medical science, for, in spite of its great velocity, it is soon stopped by encounter with other atoms. It can penetrate only a minute fraction of a millimetre into ordinary soft tissues. We shall not further consider it.

Transmuting atoms give out also material rays of another kind: the ß-rays. The ß-ray is in mass but a very small fraction of, even, a hydrogen atom. Its speed may approach that of light. As cast out by radioactive elements it starts with speeds which vary with the element, and may be from one-third to nine-tenths the velocity of light. The ß-ray is negatively electrified. It has long been known to science as the electron. It is also identical with the cathode ray of the vacuum tube.

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Another and quite different kind of radiation is given out by many of the transmuting elements:—the y-ray. This is not material, it is ethereal. It is known now with certainty that the y-ray is in kind identical with light, but of very much shorter wave length than even the extreme ultraviolet light of the solar spectrum. The y-ray is flashed from the transmuting atom along with the ß-ray. It is identical in character with the x-ray but of even shorter wave length.

There is a very interesting connection between the y-ray and the ß-ray which it is important for the medical man to understand—as far as it is practicable on our present knowledge.

When y-rays or x-rays fall on matter they give rise to ß-rays. The mechanism involved is not known but it is possibly a result of the resonance of the atom, or of parts of it, to the short light waves. And it is remarkable that the y-rays which, as we have seen, are shorter and more penetrating waves than the x-rays, give rise to ß-rays possessed of greater velocity and penetration than ß-rays excited by the x-rays. Indeed the ß-rays originated by y-rays may attain a velocity nearly approaching that of light and as great as that of any ß-rays emitted by transmuting atoms. Again there is demonstrable evidence that ß-rays impinging on matter may give rise to y-rays. The most remarkable demonstration of this is seen in the x-ray tube. Here the x-rays originate where the stream of ß- or cathode-rays

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are arrested on the anode. But the first relation is at present of most importance to us—_i.e._ that the y-or x-rays give rise to ß-rays.

This relation gives us additional evidence of the identity of the physical effects of y-, x-, and light-rays —using the term light rays in the usual sense of spectral rays. For it has long been known that light waves liberate electrons from atoms. It has been found that these electrons possess a certain initial velocity which is the greater the shorter the wave length of the light concerned in their liberation. The whole science of "photo-electricity" centres round this phenomenon. The action of light on the photographic plate, as well as many other physical and chemical phenomena, find an explanation in this liberation of the electron by the light wave.

Here, then, we have spectral light waves liberating electrons—_i.e._ very minute negatively-charged particles, and we find that, as we use shorter light waves, the initial velocity of these particles increases. Again, we have x-rays which are far smaller in wave length than spectral light, liberating much faster negatively electrified particles. Finally, we have y-rays—the shortest nether waves of all-liberating negative particles of the highest velocity known. Plainly the whole series of phenomena is continuous.

We can now look closer at the actions involved in the therapeutic influence of the several rays and in

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this way, also, see further the correlation between what may be called photo-therapeutics and radioactive therapeutics.

The ß-ray, whether we obtain it directly from the transforming radioactive atom or whether we obtain it as a result of the effects of the y- or x-rays upon the atom, is an ionising agent of wonderful power. What is meant by this? In its physical aspect this means that the atoms through which it passes acquire free electric charges; some becoming positive, some negative. This can only be due to the loss of an electron by the affected atom. The loss of the small negative charge carried in the electron leaves the atom positively electrified or creates a positive ion. The fixing of the wandering electron to a neutral atom creates a negative ion. Before further consideration of the importance of the phenomenon of ionisation we must fix in our minds that the agent, which brings this about, is the ß-ray. There is little evidence that the y-ray can directly create ions to any large extent. But the action of liberating high-speed ß-rays results in the creation of many thousands of ions by each ß-ray liberated. As an agent in the hands of the medical man we must regard the y-ray as a light wave of extremely penetrating character, which creates high-speed ß-rays in the tissues which it penetrates, these ß-rays being most potent ionising agents. The ß-rays directly obtained from radioactive atoms assist in the work of ionisation. ß-rays do not

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penetrate far from their source. The fastest of them would not probably penetrate one centimetre in soft tissues.

We must now return to the phenomenon of ionisation. Ionisation is revealed to observation most conspicuously when it takes place in a gas. The + and - electric charges on the gas particles endow it with the properties of a conductor of electricity, the + ions moving freely in one direction and the - ions in the opposite direction under an electric potential. But there are effects brought about by ionisation of more importance to the medical man than this. The chemist has long come to recognise that in the ion he is concerned with the inner mechanism of a large number of chemical phenomena. For with the electrification of the atom attractive and repulsive forces arise. We can directly show the chemical effects of the ionising ß-rays. Water exposed to their bombardment splits up into hydrogen and oxygen. And, again, the separated atoms may be in part recombined under the influence of the radiation. Ammonia splits up into hydrogen and nitrogen. Carbon dioxide forms carbon, carbon monoxide, and oxygen; hydrochloric acid forms chlorine and hydrogen. In these cases, also, recombination can be partially effected by the rays.

We can be quite sure that within the complex structure of the living cell the ionising effects which everywhere accompany the ß-rays must exert a profound influence. The sequence of chemical events which as yet seem

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beyond the ken of science and which are involved in metabolism cannot fail to be affected. Any, it is not surprising that as the result of eaperinient it is found that the radiations are agents which may be used either for the stimulation of the natural events of growth or used for the actual destruction of the cell. It is easy to see that the feeble radiation should produce the one effect, the strong the other. In a similar way by a moderate light stimulus we create the latent image in the photographic plate; by an intense light we again destroy this image. The inner mechanism in this last case can be logically stated.[1]

_There is plainly a true physical basis here for the efficacy of radioactive treatment and, what is more, we find when we examine it, that it is in kind not different from that underlying treatment by spectral radiations. But in degree it is very different and here is the reason for the special importance of radioactivity as a therapeutic agent._ The Finsen light is capable of influencing the soft tissues to a short depth only. The reason is that the wave length of the light used is too great to pass without rapid absorption through the tissues; and, further, the electrons it gives rise to—_i.e._ the ß-rays it liberates—are too slow-moving to be very efficient ionisers. X-rays penetrate in some cases quite freely and give rise to much faster and more powerful ß-rays

[1] See _The Latent Image_, p. 202.

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than can the Finsen light. But far more penetrating than x-rays are the y-rays emitted in certain of the radioactive changes. These give rise to ß-rays having a velocity approximate to that of light.

The y-rays are, therefore, very penetrating and powerfully ionising light waves; light waves which are quite invisible to the eye and can beam right through the tissues of the body. To the mind's eye only are they visible. And a very wonderful picture they make. We see the transmuting atom flashing out this light for an inconceivably short instant as it throws off the ß-ray. And "so far this little candle throws his beams" in the complex system of the cells, so far atoms shaken by the rays send out ß-rays; these in turn are hurled against other atomic systems; fresh separations of electrons arise and new attractions and repulsions spring up and the most important chemical changes are brought about. Our mental picture can claim to be no more than diagrammatic of the reality. Still we are here dealing with recognised physical and chemical phenomena, and their description as "occult" in the derogatory sense is certainly not justifiable.

Having now briefly reviewed the nature of the rays arising in radioactive substances and the rationale of their influence, we must turn to more especially practical considerations.

The Table given opposite shows that radium itself is responsible for a- and ß-rays only. It happens that

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Period in whioh ½ element is transformed.

URANIUM 1 & 2 { a 6 } x 10⁹ years.

URANIUM X { a ß } 24.6 days.

IONIUM { a 8 } x 104 years.

RADIUM { a ß } 2 x 10² years.

EMANATION { a } 8.85 days.

RADIUM A { a 8 } minutes.

RADIUM B { ß y } 26.7 minutes.

RADIUM C { a ß y } 13.5 minutes.

RADIUM D { ß } 15 years.

RADIUM E { ß y } 4.8 days.

RADIUM (Polonium) F { a } 140 days.

Table showing the successive generations of the elements of the Uranium-radium family, the character of their radiations and their longevity.

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the ß-rays emitted by radium are very "soft"—_i.e._ slow and easily absorbed. The a-ray is in no case available for more than mere surface application. Hence we see that, contrary to what is generally believed, radium itself is of little direct therapeutic value. Nor is the next body in succession—the emanation, for it gives only a-rays. In fact, to be brief, it is not till we come to Radium B that ß-rays of a relatively high penetrative quality are reached; and it is not till we come to Radium C that highly penetrative y-rays are obtained.

It is around this element, Radium C, that the chief medical importance of radioactive treatment by this family of radioactive bodies centres. Not only are ß-rays of Radium C very penetrating, but the y-rays are perhaps the most energetic rays of the, kind known. Further in the list there is no very special medical interest.

Now, how can we get a supply of this valuable element Radium C? We can obtain it from radium itself. For even if radium has been deprived of its emanation (which is easily done by heating it or bringing it into solution) in a few weeks we get back the Radium C. One thing here we must be clear about. With a given quantity of Radium only a certain definitely limited amount of Radium C, or of emanation, or any other of the derived bodies, will be associated. Why is this? The answer is because the several successive elements are themselves decaying —_i.e._ changing one into the other. The atomic per-

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centage of each, which decays in a second, is a fixed quantity which we cannot alter. Now if we picture radium which has been completely deprived of its emanation, again accumulating by automatic transmutation a fresh store of this element, we have to remember:— (i) That the rate of creation of emanation by the radium is practically constant; and (2) that the absolute amount of the emanation decaying per second increases as the stock of emanation increases. Finally, when the amount of accumulated emanation has increased to such an extent that the number of emanation atoms transmuting per second becomes exactly equal to the number being generated per second, the amount of emanation present cannot increase. This is called the equilibrium amount. If fifteen members are elected steadily each year into a newly-founded society the number of members will increase for the first few years; finally, when the losses by death of the members equal about fifteen per annum the society can get no bigger. It has attained the equilibrium number of members.

This applies to every one of the successive elements. It takes twenty-one days for the equilibrium quantity of emanation to be formed in radium which has been completely de-emanated; and it takes 3.8 days for half the equilibrium amount to be formed. Again, if we start with a stock of emanation it takes just three hours for the equilibrium amount of Radium C to be formed.

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We can evidently grow Radium C either from radium itself or from the emanation of radium. If we use a tube of radium we have an almost perfectly constant quantity of Radium C present, for as fast as the Radium C and intervening elements decay the Radium, which only diminishes very slowly in amount, makes up the loss. But, if we start off with a tube of emanation, we do not possess a constant supply of Radium C, because the emanation is decaying fairly rapidly and there is no radium to make good its loss. In 3.8 days about one half the emanation is transmuted and the Radium C decreases proportionately and, of course, with the Radium C the valuable radiations also decrease. In another 3.8 days—that is in about a week from the start—the radioactive value of the tube has fallen to one-fourth of its original value.

But in spite of the inconstant character of the emanation tube there are many reasons for preferring its use to the use of the radium tube. Chief of these is the fact that we can keep the precious radium safely locked up in the laboratory and not exposed to the thousand-and-one risks of the hospital. Then, secondly, the emanation, being a gas, is very convenient for subdivision into a large number of very small tubes according to the dosage required.

In fact the volume of the emanation is exceedingly minute. The amount of emanation in equilibrium with one gramme of radium is called the curie, and with one

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milligramme the millicurie. Now, the volume of the curie is only a little more than one half a cubic millimetre. Hence in dealing with emanation from twenty or forty milligrammes of radium we are dealing with very small volumes.

How may the emanation be obtained? The process is an easy one in skilled and practised hands. The salt of radium—generally the bromide or chloride—is brought into acid solution. This causes the emanation to be freely given off as fast as it is formed. At intervals we pump it off with a mercury pump.

Let us see how many millicuries we will in future be able to turn out in the week in our new Dublin Radium Institute.[1] We shall have about 130 milligrammes of radium. In 3.8 days we get 65 millicuries from this—_i.e._ half the equilibrium amount of 130 millicuries. Hence in the week, we shall have about 130 millicuries.

This is not much. Many experts consider this little enough for one tube. But here in Dublin we have been using the emanation in a more economical and effective manner than is the usage elsewhere; according to a method which has been worked out and developed in our own Radium Institute. The economy is obtained by the very simple expedient of minutely subdividing the' dose. The system in vogue, generally, is to treat the tumour by inserting into it one or two very active

[1] Then recently established by the Royal Dublin Society.

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tubes, containing, perhaps, up to 200 millicuries, or even more, per tube. Now these very heavily charged tubes give a radiation so intense at points close to the tube, due to the greater density of the rays near the tube, and, also, to the action of the softer and more easily absorbable rays, that it has been found necessary to stop these softer rays—both the y and ß—by wrapping lead or platinum round the tube. In this lead or platinum some thirty per cent. or more of the rays is absorbed and, of course, wasted. But in the absence of the screen there is extensive necrosis of the tissues near the tubes.

If, however, in place of one or two such tubes we use ten or twenty, each containing one-tenth or one-twentieth of the dose, we can avail ourselves of the softer rays around each tube with benefit. Thus a wasteful loss is avoided. Moreover a more uniform "illumination" of the tissues results, just as we can illuminate a hall more uniformly by the use of many lesser centres of light than by the use of one intense centre of radiation. Also we get what is called "cross-radiation,"which is found to be beneficial. The surgeon knows far better what he is doing by this method. Thus it may be arranged for the effects to go on with approximate uniformity throughout the tumour instead of varying rapidly around a central point or—and this may be very important— the effects may be readily concentrated locally.

Finally, not the least of the benefit arises in the easy technique of this new method. The quantities of

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emanation employed can fit in the finest capillary glass tubing and the hairlike tubes can in turn be placed in fine exploring needles. There is comparatively little inconvenience to the patient in inserting these needles, and there is the most perfect control of the dosage in the number and strength of these tubes and the duration of exposure.[1]

The first Radium Institute in Ireland has already done good work for the relief of human suffering. It will have, I hope, a great future before it, for I venture, with diffidence, to hold the opinion, that with increased study the applications and claims of radioactive treatment will increase.

[1] For particulars of the new technique and of some of the work already accomplished, see papers, by Dr. Walter C. Stevenson, _British Medical Journal_, July 4th, 1914, and March 20th, 1915.

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SKATING [1]

IT is now many years ago since, as a student, I was present at a college lecture delivered by a certain learned professor on the subject of friction. At this lecture a discussion arose out of a question addressed to our teacher: "How is it we can skate on ice and on no other substance?"

The answer came back without hesitation: "Because the ice is so smooth."

It was at once objected: "But you can skate on ice which is not smooth."

This put the professor in a difficulty. Obviously it is not on account of the smoothness of the ice. A piece of polished plate glass is far smoother than a surface of ice after the latter is cut up by a day's skating. Nevertheless, on the scratched and torn ice-surface skating is still quite possible; on the smooth plate glass we know we could not skate.

Some little time after this discussion, the connection between skating and a somewhat abstruse fact in physical science occurred to me. As the fact itself is one which has played a part in the geological history of the earth,

[1] A lecture delivered before the Royal Dublin Society in 1905.

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and a part of no little importance, the subject of skating, whereby it is perhaps best brought home to every one, is deserving of our careful attention. Let not, then, the title of this lecture mislead the reader as to the importance of its subject matter.

Before going on to the explanation of the wonderful freedom of the skater's movements, I wish to verify what I have inferred as to the great difference in the slipperiness of glass and the slipperiness of ice. Here is a slab of polished glass. I can raise it to any angle I please so that at length this brass weight of 250 grams just slips down when started with a slight shove. The angle is, as you see, about 12½ degrees. I now transfer the weight on to this large slab of ice which I first rapidly dry with soft linen. Observe that the weight slips down the surface of ice at a much lower angle. It is a very low angle indeed: I read it as between 4 and 5 degrees. We see by this experiment that there is a great difference between the slipperiness of the two surfaces as measured by what is called "the angle of friction." In this experiment, too, the glass possesses by far the smoother surface although I have rubbed the deeper rugosities out of the ice by smoothing it with a glass surface. Notwithstanding this, its surface is spotted with small cavities due to bubbles and imperfections. It is certain that if the glass was equally rough, its angle of friction towards the brass weight would be higher.

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We have, however, another comparative experiment to carry out. I made as you saw a determination of the angle at which this weight of 250 grams just slipped on the ice. The lower surface of the weight, the part which presses on the ice, consists of a light, brass curtain ring. This can be detached. Its mass is only 6½ grams, the curtain ring being, in fact, hollow and made of very thin metal. We have, therefore, in it a very small weight which presents exactly the same surface beneath as did the weight of 250 grams. You see, now, that this light weight will not slip on ice at 5 or 6 degrees of slope, but first does so at about io degrees.

This is a very important experiment as regards our present inquiry. Ice appears to possess more than one angle of friction according as a heavy or a light weight is used to press upon it. We will make the same experiment with the plate of glass. You see that there is little or no difference in the angle of friction of brass on glass when we press the surfaces together with a heavy or with a light weight. The light weight requires the same slope of 12½ degrees to make it slip.

This last result is in accordance with the laws of friction. We say that when solid presses on solid, for each pair of substances pressed together there is a constant ratio between the force required to keep one in motion over the other, and the force pressing the solids together. This ratio is called"the coefficient of friction."The coefficient is, in fact, constant or approximately

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so. I can determine the coefficient of friction from the angle of friction by taking the tangent of the angle. The tangent of the angle of friction is the coefficient of friction. If, then, the coefficient is constant, so, of course, must the angle of friction be constant. We have seen that it is so in the case of metal on glass, but not so in the case of metal on ice. This curious result shows that there is something abnormal about the slipperiness of ice.