The Romance of Modern Chemistry

 ..............-----................- ^-- -.-. - -..^JI^^HHB^HESibmmmh r ............=................. ---------------------------------------__________ I NATURE’S BUILDING MATERIAL ■ found native, and a similar explanation is forthcoming in the case of other elements. I It may occur to the reader to ask—Is it quite certain that the so-called elements represent the ultimate units of which the natural world is built up ? Is it not possible that some substances which are at present regarded as elements may turn out to be combinations of other elements ? This is perfectly possible, but not very pro- bable. It is certainly true that water, soda, and potash, which up to one hundred or one hundred and twenty years ago were regarded as elements, were then found to be really compound substances, and it is conceivable that a similar thing might happen again. But it is less likely nowadays, for a substance which has to run the gauntlet of the chemist’s modern methods of attack can scarcely pass unscathed unless it is really of an elementary character. On the question how far the present accepted list of elements is to be regarded as final, the discovery of radium has thrown an interesting and somewhat startling I light. For it appears that radium, although an element I in the commonly accepted meaning of the word, is under- I going continuous transformation into other elements, the ' gas, helium, being one of the products of change. The I idea that one element could be transformed into another ; was cherished by the alchemists, as we have seen, but the whole course of chemical progress in the last century was against the acceptance of that idea. And just as chemists 1/ were getting settled in their minds about that important question, radium came along and introduced an air of uncertainty again into the whole business. If it should I turn out that one element can actually be converted into li another, as radium appears to be changed into helium, there will be some support given to the hypothesis that the 32